Dario Fo  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

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Dario Fo (born March 24, 1926) is an Italian satirist, playwright, theater director, actor, and composer. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1997. His dramatic work employs comedic methods of the ancient Italian commedia dell'arte, a theatrical style popular with the proletarian classes. He currently owns and operates a theatre company with his wife and leading actress Franca Rame.

Selected works

Note: These are the English names of the works.

• Archangels Don't Play Pinball (1959)
• He Had Two Pistols with White and Black Eyes (1960)
• He Who Steals a Foot is Lucky in Love (1961)
• Isabella, Three Tall Ships, and a Con Man(1961)
• Mistero Buffo (Comic Mystery, 1969)
• The Worker Knows 300 Words, the Boss 1000, That's Why He's the Boss (1969)
• Accidental Death of an Anarchist (1970)
• Fedayin (1971)
• We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay! (Non Si Paga! Non Si Paga!) (aka Can't Pay? Won't Pay!) (1974)
• Mama's Marijuana is the Best (1976)
• All House, Bed, and Church (1977)
• The Tale of a Tiger (1978)
• Trumpets and Raspberries (1981)
• The Open Couple (1983)
• Elizabeth: Almost by Chance a Woman (1984)
• One was Nude and One wore Tails (1985)
• Abducting Diana (1986) - Adapted to English in 1996 by Stephen Stenning
• The Tricks of the Trade (Manuale minimo dell'attore) [1987] (1991)
• The Zeedonk and the Shoe (1988)
• The Pope and the Witch (1989)
• A Woman Alone (1991)
• Johan Padan and the Discovery of the Americas (1992)
• The Devil with Boobs (1997)
• The First Miracle of the Infant Jesus
• Orgasmo Adulto Escapes from the Zoo
• About Face
• The Virtuous Burglar

English translations

A number of Fo's plays have been translated into the English language, including Abducting Diana and St Francis - The Holy Jester which is on a 2009 tour of southern England.