There are only 3 (2 made-for-TV) versions of the celebrated play 'Wedding Gown,' created in 1943. I find Paulo Jose's far superior to the others. The dialog is now vintage. A brief excerpt: "I'll make a scandal. If I tell something I know!... Don't provoke me, Alaíde. I should be the bride! You're a monster! The only man I loved. I never married my sweethearts. But I never had your impudence."
Another fragment: "Funny! I rather like two sisters in love with the same man," says poetically bordello hostess Madam Clessi. Let me try to give you an idea in the form of synopsis:the action starts with a sound of horns, cars, messing around. Alaíde is the victim of a hit & run driver. Taken to the hospital in a state of shock, she's submitted to an urgent operation. The media then publicizes the accident. ALthough the plot seems simple and banal, this is only one aspect of an intricate, Pirandellian text. The play is staged on a multi-story set designed in 3 different levels: first, that of a reality show, then the plan of hallucination , finally the memory level. Reality is only a pretext to virtuality, and a love triangle provides an undercurrent : Pedro, Lucia's boyfriend, eventually marries Alaíde, Lucia's sister. It's after a violent discussion caused by her own marital trouble that Alaíde flees from home and meets her fate. The language is dramatic, slightly rhymed , and full of those trademark phrases for which Mr Nelson Rodrigues wd later become famous for.
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