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Abstract
For three decades Dario Fo has been the world's most performed living playwright and Europe's leading radical dramatist. He was awarded the 1997 Nobel Prize for Literature at the age of 71 for his contributions as a writer, actor and mime artist over half a century. A controversial figure, he has also been a communist for most of his life.
In the first political biography of Dario Fo, Tom Behan traces Fo's life and work from his beginnings in cabaret and mime in postwar Italy and his early writings for television and radio, to the development of his political ideas and the influence of his plays both inside and outside Italy.
Behan broadens his study to examine the importance of Fo's theatre and explores the relationship between mass leftwing movements and Fo's activities as playwright and performer. To illustrate these links, Behan makes a detailed analysis of the key themes in Fo's plays – state repression in The Accidental Death of an Anarchist, rebellion in Can't Pay, Won't Pay, the tragedy of leftwing terrorism in Trumpets and Raspberries, and the anti-Clerical satire of Mistero Buffo .
Table of Contents
| Section Title | Page | Action | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contents | iii | ||
| Acknowledgements | iv | ||
| Brief Chronology | v | ||
| Introduction | 1 | ||
| 1. The Bourgeois Period | 5 | ||
| Challenges to the System | 12 | ||
| On the Wavelength of Lies | 14 | ||
| Back to the Theatre | 18 | ||
| The Break with the Bourgeoisie | 21 | ||
| 2. The Revolutionary Period | 24 | ||
| A New Audience | 27 | ||
| The Politics of New Scene | 31 | ||
| The Break with Reformism | 32 | ||
| The Commune | 40 | ||
| The Gathering Storm | 48 | ||
| Chile: The End of the Parliamentary Road to Socialism | 51 | ||
| Palazzina Liberty | 58 | ||
| 3. Accidental Death of an Anarchist | 63 | ||
| The Strategy of Tension | 64 | ||
| The Genesis of the Play | 66 | ||
| Smashing the State | 70 | ||
| Attempted Obliteration of an Anarchist | 74 | ||
| The Frame-up of the Anarchist's Friends | 75 | ||
| Conclusion | 82 | ||
| 4. Can't Pay? Won't Pay! | 84 | ||
| Upturns, Downturns and Autoriduzioni | 84 | ||
| Life Imitates Art | 89 | ||
| The Continued Success of the Play | 91 | ||
| 5. Mistero Buffo | 95 | ||
| Mistero Buffo in History and in Theory | 95 | ||
| Mistero Buffo in Practice | 99 | ||
| The Vatican's Response to Mistero Buffo | 102 | ||
| On Writing and Performing | 104 | ||
| Breaking the Fourth Wall | 106 | ||
| The Power of Laughter | 109 | ||
| 6. The Downturn Period | 111 | ||
| Left-wing Terrorism and Trumpets and Raspberries | 116 | ||
| Maoism and Marxism | 127 | ||
| Exit Stage Left? | 131 | ||
| The End of the Regime | 133 | ||
| Conclusion | 137 | ||
| Dario Fo, Nobel Prizewinner - A Mistero Buffo? | 137 | ||
| Appendix A: Fo's Theatrical Coup | 143 | ||
| Success | 144 | ||
| Appendix B: An 'Intervention Show' in Brescia | 146 | ||
| Appendix C: A Telegram to The Commune | 150 | ||
| Notes | 151 | ||
| Introduction | 151 | ||
| Chapter 1 The Bourgeois Period | 151 | ||
| Chapter 2 The Revolutionary Period | 153 | ||
| Chapter 3 Accidental Death of an Anarchist | 158 | ||
| Chapter 4 Can't Pay? Won't Pay! | 160 | ||
| Chapter 5 Mistero Buffo | 161 | ||
| Chapter 6 The Downturn Period | 164 | ||
| Conclusion | 166 | ||
| Appendix A: Fo's Theatrical Coup | 167 | ||
| Appendix B: An Intervention Show in Brescia | 167 | ||
| Appendix C: A Telegram to The Commune | 167 | ||
| Index | 169 | ||
| A Poke in the Eye 8 | 8 | ||
| Accidental Death of an Anarchist | 3 |