Petite Saison – The Man, the Beast and Virtue

A comedy in two acts by Luigi Pirandello

The play brings to the stage bourgeois hypocrisy and the acrobatics the characters perform to save appearances.
Professor Paolino is in trouble: his lover, Mrs Perella, is expecting a child by him. To preserve the woman’s honor, the two must persuade her husband—an uncouth and indifferent captain—to do his duty toward his wife. To achieve this, they devise a brilliant plan: to flatter the man and administer an aphrodisiac, exploiting his arrogance and his desire to appear virtuous.