«The miracle! The miracle!»: The incursion of the supernatural into the mythical theatre of Pirandello

With this contribution I would like to consider two plays by Pirandello, Lazzaro and La nuova colonia, included in the so-called trilogy of the Myths along with the unfinished I giganti della montagna. While this last work is totally immersed in a dimension of mystery, «at the edge of life» as Cotrone says, where fantasy and reality are not divisible, La nuova colonia and Lazzaro are set in places and times not well specified but realistic, that could coincide with any town in southern Italy. Above all, Lazzaro brings to the stage the drama of a common family and it does not depart from previous, internationally known works of Pirandello, except for the fantastic element barging in at the end, with the miraculous healing of the paralytic daughter. The contingencies are different when the miraculous milk finally flows from the breast of Spera, but the reaction is the same: The miracle! The miracle! is the choral exclamation of the onlookers, who kneel down, giving the scene a sacred value. Pirandello of course does not propose a rational explanation of what happened, leaving readers and characters in general astonishment. The same definition of myths is not clarified by the author. Critics proposed several readings from the '60s to the present, among which I mention very summarily the maternal-centric, anti-patriarchal, symbolic, psycho-Jungian, historical-critical in relation to fascism, futurism and magic realism, and lastly the meta-literary one. The purpose of my contribution is not to indicate a further interpretative solution, but to propose a reflection on the reactions of the characters in front of the extraordinary, what they see as such, and what meaning they give to it. I also intend to focus on the modes of staging of the miracle, taking into account the contemporary dramaturgical production.