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The Throw-Away Theatre of Dario Fo

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2021

Suzanne Cowan
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Extract

In Western Europe, where Brecht's plays have by now become standard fare for bourgeois audiences and where political theatre remains, by and large, the domain of students and middle-class intellectuals, the work of Dario Fo stands out as an anomaly. He is a gifted poet and playwright, as well as an actor, director, and full-time cultural activist; but, although his plays are known throughout Italy and numerous other European countries, they are usually discarded after a few months’ performance. His company does not consider itself avant-garde, and eschews formal experimentation for its own sake, yet it has incorporated many innovative techniques both in the dramatic structure of its productions and in its mode of organization. Although his group does not perform agit-prop or guerrilla street theatre, it is small, flexible, mobile, and militant. Fo has definitively renounced the commercial stage and dedicates his energies to serving the revolutionary movement in Italy; yet he continues to enjoy enormous popular support.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Drama Review , Volume 19 , Issue 2: Political Theatre Issue , June 1975 , pp. 102 - 113
Copyright
Copyright © 1975 The Drama Review

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Footnotes

The title photograph is from a 1971 production of Fedayn, directed by Dario Fo. Fo's wife, Franca Rame, starred in the production, which dealt with the songs and culture of the Palestine guerrilla movement.

References

Footnotes

1. So far there have been four major editions of Dario Fo's plays:

Compagni senza censura (Teatro politico della Associazione Nuova Scena), Milano, Mazzotta, 1970, V. 1. This volume contains several of the political plays written and directed by Fo when he worked with the Nuova Scena company. Volume 2 (II Collettivo Teatrale La Comune), published in 1973, contains the major plays performed by La Comune up to that date. Both volumes contain photographs, documentary materials and texts of debates held after performances. Testi del Colletivo La Comune, Vernoa, Bertani editore. Bertani has published a series of separate editions of plays written by Fo for ,La Comune. Each volume contains documents and notes to the text. Bertani also plans to publish an edition of Fo's complete works starting in 1975.

Le Commedie di Dario Fo, Torino, Einaudi, 1974, 2 vols. This edition contains a selection of short comedies written during the years 1959-1967.

Dario Fo: Teatro Comico, Milano, Garzanti, 1971. A single-volume pocket edition of Fo's early comedies.

2. Pum, pum! Chè? La polizia!, Vernoa, Bertani editore, 3a. edizione, gennaio 1974.

3. Tutti uniti! Tutti insieme! Ma scusa quello non è il padrone?, Verona, Bertani editore, aprile 1972.

4. Compagni senza censura, Milano, Mazzotta, 1973, Vol. 2, pp. 112-113.

5. Ibid, Vol. 1, pp. 110-111.

6. Much of the music for songs written between 1970 and the present was composed by Paolo Ciarchi, a member of La Comune. An edition of Fo's complete poems, songs, and ballads is scheduled for publication by Bertani in 1975.