"This high-spirited drama by Pirandello defies expectations. It is not the intellectual whirlwind of his Six Characters in Search of an Author but takes us instead to the heart of a rural community where property and kinship provoke fierce passions. Liolà, a young man untroubled by tradition, takes the part of nature all the way.

Of course it's wrong to force a well-guarded gate, but a boy who follows an open path, well...

Written in Sicilian dialect, Liolà is rarely played in the English language. Tanya Ronder's new version, showing at the Lyttelton in the summer of 2013 is performed by an Irish cast and gypsy musicians. It's unexpected, funny and touching."

You can't have a full barrel and a drunk wife, you just can't cut it both ways.