Right You Are—If You Think You Are

Right You Are—If You Think You Are, play in three acts by Luigi Pirandello, produced in Italian in 1917 as Così è (se vi pare) and published the following year. The title is sometimes translated as Right You Are (If You Think So), among other variations. This work, like almost all of Pirandello’s plays, contrasts art and life, demonstrating that truth is subjective and relative.

No one has ever seen Signor Ponza’s wife and her mother, Signora Frola, together. Councillor Agazzi, Ponza’s employer, investigates Ponza’s private life. Ponza claims that his wife is really his second wife, the first having died in an earthquake that destroyed all verifying documents. Too, his wife only pretends to be Signora Frola’s daughter to humour Signora Frola, who, he claims, is insane. Thoroughly bewildered, Agazzi demands to meet Ponza’s wife, who arrives, heavily veiled, proclaiming herself as both the daughter of Signora Frola and the second wife of Ponza. The “truth” of the matter remains a mystery.