The most popular of Pirandello's comedies, Six Characters in Search of an Author tells the tale of six characters whose author has failed to complete their story. Driven to play out the life that is rightfully theirs, these characters interrupt the rehearsal of another Pirandello play and request that they be allowed to live out their lives here, on this stage. Thinking it an interesting theatrical experiment, the manager consents. He soon regrets his decision, however, as the characters refuse to stay within the arbitrary boundaries that he has set for them. Their rebellion against their creator leads them to attack the foundation of the play, ignoring all stage directions and the pleas of the manager until, in the end, tragedy strikes. The boy, the family's youngest son, watches with a look of madness as his four-year-old sister drowns in a fountain. He then slips off behind a tree and shoots himself. Written in only a few weeks during 1921, Six Characters in Search of an Author had a successful but scandalous opening in Rome, followed by a successful and less scandalous opening in Milan. Soon, it was being directed by Komisarjevsky in London, Brock Pemberton in New York, and Max Reinhardt in Germany, and Pirandello found himself showered with the praise and recognition that had been denied his earlier efforts.