UCSB Theater & Dance Presents ABSOLUTELY! {perhaps}, Now thru 2/20

The Department of Theater & Dance at UCSB presents Absolutely! {perhaps} a modern adaptation by Martin Sherman of Luigi Pirandello's widely known play, Right You Are (If You Think So). In this fast moving comedy under the direction of Simon Williams, the play explores the nature of truth. Absolutely! {perhaps} performs in the Performing Arts Theater on the UC Santa Barbara campus tonight, February 15 - 23, 2013.

In a small town destroyed by an earthquake, the townspeople become fascinated with the new residents - a family of three. As the story of the new family is leaked to the residents, they become engrossed and consumed by the gossip in an attempt to solve the puzzle of what is true and who is telling the truth.

Written in 1917, this was Pirandello's first major play and introduced themes that were to become absolutely central to modern European drama. Pirandello demonstrates that there is no such thing as objective truth, that all truth is subjective and that if we do not recognize this and respect it, chaos and destruction will occur. The play was written and first staged during the First World War and its action strikes up uneasy resonances with that war. "The audience will be highly entertained, but disturbed as well. It is a play that invites a very ambivalent response," says director and UCSB theater professor Simon Williams. In today's society rife with celebrity gossip blogs, the play strikes a familiar tone with its themes of reality and illusion, our fascination with the lives of others and the debate over the public's right to pry into the private affairs of others. This will be the first time in 29 years that the Theater & Dance department has produced a play by Pirandello.