About the work
Die Riesen vom Berge (Italian 'I giganti della montagna', 'The Mountain Giants') is Luigi Pirandello's last, unfinished play, on which he worked from 1931 until his death in 1936. It premiered on 5 June 1937 in the Boboli Gardens in Florence as part of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, staged by Renato Simoni; the only sketched third act was condensed by Pirandello's son Stefano, from his father's notes, into a narrated prologue placed before the performance.
Plot
A group of outsiders lives in seclusion under the magician Cotrone at the villa 'Scalogna'. When a travelling theatre troupe led by Countess Ilse seeks shelter there to perform their play about a switched king's son, two worldviews collide: Cotrone's community, sustained by fantasy and dream, and the troupe's art, which depends on real effect on an audience.
Cultural significance
The play is regarded as Pirandello's theatrical testament and a key work on the relationship between art, fantasy and reality; its German-language premiere followed on 1 October 1949 at the Schauspielhaus Zürich.