Dario Fo: People's Court Jester (Methuen Theatrefiles) Book

The works of Fo number among the world's most performed plays. Tony Mitchell chronicles Fo's early theatrical and political development from the revue sketches and broad faces of the early 1950s to his more commercial hits of the 1960s. He explores Fo's collaborations with his wife, the actress Franca Rame, and their great international successes of key work of the 1970s and 1980s (including Mistero Buffo, Accidental Death of an Anarchist, Can't Pay? Won't Pay!,Female Parts, Trumpets and Raspberries, The Open Couple, Elizabeth, and The Pope and the Witch). People's Court Jester now includes the more recent political and theatrical work of the Fos in the 1990s, leading up to the awarding of the Nobel prize. This is a study of the myriad theatrical styles and genres which Fo employs in his stage work: his embodiment of the guillare or jester tradition; his borrowings from the commedia dell'arte; his use of techniques from circus, burlesque, satire, and Bertolt Brecht's Epic Theatre; his views on history, popular music, and storytelling. Mitchell also provides insight on translating Fo into English and includes an extensive chronology, bibliography, and production history of major events in Fo's long and colorful career. Dario Fo: People's Court Jester—here revised for the third time—remains the first and only full-length study in English of the work of Dario Fo, the controversial Italian playwright, actor, director, songwriter, and political activist who received the 1997 Nobel Prize for Literature.Read More