Henry IV, A Tragedy in Three Acts

Written by Luigi Pirandello

Narrated by LibriVox Community

A talented actor and historian falls off his horse in a historical pageant while playing the role of Henry IV. When he comes to, he believes himself to be Henry. For the next twenty years his nephew, Count de Nolli, funds an elaborate hoax in a remote villa, where actors play the roles of Henry's privy councillors and simulate the 11th century court.

On request from his dying mother, de Nolli brings a Doctor referred to as the latest in a succession to try to cure Henry (whose real name, if it is not Henry, is never mentioned). All the action of the play occurs in this one day of the visit. - Summary by Wikipedia

Narrator: KHand
Henry IV: Peter Tucker
The Marchioness Matilda Spina: P. J. Morgan
Frida: Amanda Friday
The young Marquis Charles Di Nolli: Vin Reilly
Baron Tito Belcredi: Delmar H Dolbier
Dr. Dionysius Genoni: ToddHW
Harold (Frank): Will Irace
Landolph (Lolo): Levi Throckmorton
Ordulph (Momo): Adele de Pignerolles
Berthold (Fino): Mary J
John: Mark Chulsky
First Valet: Alex Lane
Second valet: Andrew Coleman

Proof-listened by Jeanie & Roohi

• Language: English
• Publisher: LibriVox
• Release date: Aug 25, 2014

Luigi Pirandello

Luigi Pirandello (1867-1936) was an Italian playwright, novelist, and poet. Born to a wealthy Sicilian family in the village of Cobh, Pirandello was raised in a household dedicated to the Garibaldian cause of Risorgimento. Educated at home as a child, he wrote his first tragedy at twelve before entering high school in Palermo, where he excelled in his studies and read the poets of nineteenth century Italy. After a tumultuous period at the University of Rome, Pirandello transferred to Bonn, where he immersed himself in the works of the German romantics. He began publishing his poems, plays, novels, and stories in earnest, appearing in some of Italy’s leading literary magazines and having his works staged in Rome. Six Characters in Search of an Author (1921), an experimental absurdist drama, was viciously opposed by an outraged audience on its opening night, but has since been recognized as an essential text of Italian modernist literature. During this time, Pirandello was struggling to care for his wife Antonietta, whose deteriorating mental health forced him to place her in an asylum by 1919. In 1924, Pirandello joined the National Fascist Party, and was soon aided by Mussolini in becoming the owner and director of the Teatro d’Arte di Roma. Although his identity as a Fascist was always tenuous, he never outright abandoned the party. Despite this, he maintained the admiration of readers and critics worldwide, and was awarded the 1934 Nobel Prize for Literature.