Theatre On The Edge

Six Characters in Search of a Handout

Staged at the Edinburgh Fringe, this play is a black comedy that looks at the topical issue of Food Banks and the people who have to use them.

Six Characters In Search Of A Handout is influenced by Luigi Pirandello’s absurdist play, Six Characters In Search Of An Author.  One of the themes that Pirandello considers is: can art ever truly describe reality?  

Six characters from a Food Bank interrupt a group of actors rehearsing a play and demand that the actors tell their story.  The characters feel that they are a fiction created by writers in the media and they want their real story to be told.  

As the play unfolds the difference between truth and illusion becomes difficult to see and the play takes an unexpected turn with the arrival of a mysterious media celebrity. 

August 2016