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Madame Pace
Alongside the Leading Lady, the main actor in the the Manager’s production of the fictional Pirandello play “Mixing It Up.” He rehearses his role as the “ridiculous” chef Leo Gala until the six Characters show up, asking to be made into a drama. Proud of his role at the head of the theater company, he insists on playing the Father, even though the Father believes the Leading Man does not at all resemble him. He and the Leading Lady grow furious whenever the Characters declare that their acting does not capture the reality of their story.
The Leading Man Quotes in Six Characters in Search of an Author
The Six Characters in Search of an Author quotes below are all either spoken by The Leading Man or refer to The Leading Man. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Act 1 Quotes
Ridiculous? Ridiculous? Is it my fault if France won’t send us any more good comedies, and we are reduced to putting on Pirandello’s works, where nobody understands anything, and where the author plays the fool with us all?
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“The empty form of reason without the fullness of instinct, which is blind.”—You stand for reason, your wife is instinct. It’s a mixing up of the parts, according to which you who act your own part become the puppet of yourself. Do you understand?
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Act 3 Quotes
The illusion! For Heaven’s sake, don’t say illusion. Please don’t use that word, which is particularly painful for us.
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The Leading Man Character Timeline in Six Characters in Search of an Author
The timeline below shows where the character The Leading Man appears in Six Characters in Search of an Author. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Act 1
...Up,” and the Manager tells the Property Man to prepare the set. The play requires the Leading Man to wear a chef’s hat and he objects that this is “ridiculous.” The Manager declares...
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“Biting her lips with rage at seeing the Leading Man flirting with the Step-Daughter,” the Leading Lady proposes they continue the rehearsal, but the Manager...
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Act 2
...us on the stage,” he admits, but he does not know who should play him. The Leading Man interrupts that it should be him, but he and the Father agree that “it will...
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...stopping the action. Although the Step-Daughter protests that “the best’s coming now,” the Manager asks the Leading Man and Leading Lady to re-enact the scene so far, which they begin to do, although...
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The Manager restarts the scene and directs the Leading Lady and Leading Man on how to act out the first encounter between the Father and the Step-Daughter, who...
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...author present,” because “he’s never satisfied!” The Step-Daughter promises to stop laughing. The Manager asks the Leading Man to tell the Leading Lady (playing the Step-Daughter) that he “understand[s]” her mourning and ask...
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Act 3
...“takes place indoors.” The Manager complains that this many scene changes would be impossible, but the Leading Man suggests one scene change (like “they used to” do), and the Leading Lady says “it...
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...The Father agrees, “because we are all making believe here.” “Only for a joke” can the Leading Man play the Father, who is really himself. The Father declares he has “caught you in...
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