Pirandello's "Henry IV" February 7, 2006

Pirandello's play is a masterpiece of love and jealousy, psychosis and self-awareness, brought to new life with flair and humor by Tom Stoppard. An Italian nobleman falls from his horse during a historical re-enactment, awakening to believe he actually is his character, the medieval German emperor King Henry IV.

For two decades, everyone indulges his "madness". He lives in a fantasy world, an illusion engineered by his family, complete with an 11th century castle and a retinue of costumed courtiers. But his family now believes they can cure him and have come to shock him into the 21st century, only to receive a shock of their own.