Dario Fo & Franca Rame: harlequins of the revolution By joseph farrell (methuen, 19.99) Reviewed by john fowler



A JESTER, a joker, a clown, a fool -- as in Shakespeare, a mere player. But much more than that -- a writer, a satirist, a subversive, a thorn in the side, a critic of church and state, an activist of the left. In all, a man to be feared by authority. And finally, surprise, surprise, a Nobel laureate.
For 40 years Dario Fo has been an unsettling presence in the Italian cultural and political scene. Latterly, he has become an iconic figure in world theatre, though only a fraction of his vast output of plays, sketches and monologues -- some jointly credited to his wife, actress Franca Rame -- have been staged in Britain.

His appearances here have been fleeting, and Joseph Farrell's timely biography, the first full-length study of Fo and his works in English, fills a considerable gap. Farrell is well equipped for the task, an academic and observer of the Italian scene who wears his erudition lightly.

I was fascinated by Farrell's discussion of the young Fo's activities during Mussolini's brief, puppet republic in north Italy toward the end of the war. Later, Fo liked to imply a connection with the partisans. It seems not -- but if the teenage Fo was no hero of the resistance he was no villain either. Fo's marriage to Franca Rame, a member of a family troupe of touring actors, acted as a stimulus to his talent as a performer. Thereafter Rame's career was inextricably linked with Fo's. She became his leading actress, business manager, script doctor, to some extent co-author, and editor . Without her help, much of Fo's chaotic creativity (heavily reliant on improvisation) would have been lost to posterity.

Always an individualist, Fo had an uneasy relationship with the left-wing theatre collectives in which he honed his craft. It was he who was the driving force, the star, the inspiration and the crowd-puller. As a Marxist, an admirer -- through tinted specs -- of Mao's cultural revolution and a lifelong propagandist in the class struggle, Fo has grounded his work in the political and economic turmoils of contemporary Italy.

Events after a terrorist bombing in Milan, when a suspect fell to his death while being interrogated by the police, inspired Accidental Death Of An Anarchist, one of his most popular plays. Another, We Can't Pay? We Won't Pay! is based on a real-life incident when housewives, incensed by rocketing prices, 'liberated' foodstuffs from the supermarket shelves.

Even when drawing its subject from history -- as in his ribald tour-de-force, Mistero Buffo -- Fo's work has topical relevance. In the supercharged atmosphere of Italian post-war politics, Fo and Rame found themselves subjected to censorship, lawsuits and the threat of violence. Bombs were found under a theatre where they were playing, death threats came in the post. Franca Rame was raped, condoned and even instigated by senior carabiners.

Topicality has its drawbacks. Situations and characters recognisable by Fo's countrymen are lost on British audiences. This, Farrell suggests, has led British translators, directors and actors to crank up the comedy unduly or to thump home the political message crudely.

Finding a voice for Fo on the English stage is difficult . Once when Rame attended an ill-starred student performance on the Edinburgh Fringe she was heard audibly mouthing the word 'vergogna' (shameful!): the unfortunate actress collapsed in tears.

Fo is difficult to pigeon-hole. His rumbustious theatre is easily dismissed as vulgar, not quite high art. Hence the 'jeering hilarity in Italy's more effete literary salons' when his name was first put forward in 1975 as a Nobel contender.

He popped up again, years later, to take the prize. But even in 1997 the idea that 'a jester' should receive such an honour shocked the Vatican's newspaper. The Catholic church had reason to feel aggrieved. There were wounds to lick. Over the years, the church and pope had been the butt of much of Fo's anarchic satire and he has not mellowed with age.

But the prize for literature? Surely some mistake? The Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa disapproved but was polite, though a disappointed Italian poet who had been widely tipped for the honour said: 'I have a pain in the balls.' On the other hand, Italian fiction writer Umberto Eco applauded the award. Fo himself (by now impaired as the result of a stroke) had no qualms. Unabashed, he traces his lineage back to Moliere, the greatest comic actor-writer of all.

Dario Fo
BALLERINI, L. et al 1978 'Dario Fo Explains: An Interview', The Drama Review, 22, no. 1, pp. 33-48.

COWAN, S. 1975 'The Throw-Away Theatre of Dario Fo', The Drama Review 19, no. 2 (1975): p. 102-13.

1979 ' Dario Fo, Politics and Satire: An Introduction to Accidental Death of an Anarchist', Theater 10, no. 2, pp. 7-11.
DAVIS, R. G. 1986 'Seven Anarchists I have Known: American Approaches to Dario Fo', New Theatre Quarterly, 11, no. 8, pp.313-319.
FARRELL, J. 1995 'Fo and Feydeau: Is Farce a Laughing Matter?' Italica 72, no. 3, pp. 307-22.

1998 ' Variations on a Theme: Respecting Dario Fo ', Modern Drama, 41, no. 1, pp. 19-29.
FO, D. 1983 'Popular Culture', Theater, 14, no. 3, pp. 50-54.
1987 'Some Aspects of Popular Theatre', trans. Tony Mitchell, New Theatre Quarterly, 1, no. 2, pp 131-137.
JENKINS, R. 1986 'Dario Fo: The Roar of the Clown', The Drama Review, 30, no. 1 (109) pp. 171-179.
MACERI, D. 1998 'Dario Fo: Jester of the Working Class', World Literature Today: A Literary Quarterly of the University of Oklahoma 72, no. 1, pp. 9-14 .

O'KEEFE-BAZZONI, J. 1988 ' Disruptive Witness: The Clown Figure in Pirandello and Fo', In Mancini, A. N. et al (eds) Italiana 1988, River Forest, IL: Rosary College.

SCUDERI, A. 1994 'Dario Fo and Performance Theory', Italian Culture 12, pp. 239-46.

1998 Dario Fo and Popular Performance. Toronto: Legas
WING, J 1990 ' The Performance of Power and the Power of Performance: Rewriting the Police State in Dario Fo's Accidental Death of an Anarchist' Modern Drama, 33, no. 1, pp. 139-149.