Italian actor, playwright, comedian, singer-songwriter, theater director, painter, and political activist (1926-2016)

Dario Luigi Angelo Fowas an Italian playwright, actor, theatre director, stage designer, songwriter, political campaigner for the Italian left wing and the recipient of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Literature. In his time he was “arguably the most widely performed contemporary playwright in world theatre”.

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About the Dario Fo

Dario Luigi Angelo Fowas an Italian playwright, actor, theatre director, stage designer, songwriter, political campaigner for the Italian left wing and the recipient of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Literature. In his time he was “arguably the most widely performed contemporary playwright in world theatre”. Much of his dramatic work depends on improvisation and comprises the recovery of “illegitimate” forms of theatre, such as those performed by giullariand, more famously, the ancient Italian style of commedia dell’arte.

His plays have been translated into 30 languages and performed across the world, including in Argentina, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, India, Iran, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Yugoslavia. His work of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s is peppered with criticisms of assassinations, corruption, organised crime, racism, Roman Catholic theology, and war. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, he took to lampooning Forza Italia and its leader Silvio Berlusconi, while his targets of the 2010s included the banks amid the European sovereign-debt crisis. Also in the 2010s, he became the main ideologue of the Five Star Movement, the anti-establishment party led by Beppe Grillo, often referred to by its members as “the Master”.

Fo’s solo piece celebre, titled Mistero Buffo and performed across Europe, Asia, Canada and Latin America over a 30-year period, is recognised as one of the most controversial and popular spectacles in postwar European theatre and has been denounced by Cardinal Ugo Poletti, Cardinal Vicar for the Diocese of Rome, as “the most blasphemous show in the history of television”. The title of the original English translation of Non Si Paga! Non Si Paga!has passed into the English language, and the play is described as capturing “something universal in actions and reactions of the working class”.

His receipt of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Literature marked the “international acknowledgment of Fo as a major figure in twentieth-century world theatre”. The Swedish Academy praised Fo as a writer “who emulates the jesters of the Middle Ages in scourging authority and upholding the dignity of the downtrodden”. He owned and operated a theatre company. Fo was an atheist.

16 Quotes by Dario Fo

  1. 1.

    Real socialism is inside man. It wasn’t born with Marx. It was in the communes of Italy in the Middle Ages. You can’t say it is finished.

    Dario Fo

    Italian actor, playwright, comedian, singer-songwriter, theater director, painter, and political activist (1926-2016)

  2. 2.

    All forms of power – even based on the consensus of the democratic system – react when they are being attacked, or when those who exercise power become a target.

    Dario Fo

    Italian actor, playwright, comedian, singer-songwriter, theater director, painter, and political activist (1926-2016)

  3. 3.

    Even before Europe was united in an economic level or was conceived at the level of economic interests and trade, it was culture that united all the countries of Europe. The arts, literature, music are the connecting link of Europe.

    Dario Fo

    Italian actor, playwright, comedian, singer-songwriter, theater director, painter, and political activist (1926-2016)

  4. 4.

    We thought the church had withdrawn from interfering in Italian politics… but instead there is a terrible resurgence. These are ugly signs for freedom of expression.

    Dario Fo

    Italian actor, playwright, comedian, singer-songwriter, theater director, painter, and political activist (1926-2016)

  5. 5.

    Comedy makes the subversion of the existing state of affairs possible.

    Dario Fo

    Italian actor, playwright, comedian, singer-songwriter, theater director, painter, and political activist (1926-2016)

  6. 6.

    When I was a boy, unconsciously, spontaneously I learned the art of telling ironic stories.

    Dario Fo

    Italian actor, playwright, comedian, singer-songwriter, theater director, painter, and political activist (1926-2016)

  7. 7.

    Nevertheless, the mode, the justification, and all the games involved in this war were dishonest.

    Dario Fo

    Italian actor, playwright, comedian, singer-songwriter, theater director, painter, and political activist (1926-2016)

  8. 8.

    In a way, the American side descended to Saddam’s level, which happens often in these types of circumstances. That is why the people in Iraq do not accept the current state of affairs.

    Dario Fo

    Italian actor, playwright, comedian, singer-songwriter, theater director, painter, and political activist (1926-2016)

  9. 9.

    I felt like an extraordinary hero. I was only five or six and I had the whole of life in my hands. Even if I had been driving the carriage of the sun I could not have felt any better.

    Dario Fo

    Italian actor, playwright, comedian, singer-songwriter, theater director, painter, and political activist (1926-2016)

  10. 10.

    With comedy I can search for the profound.

    Dario Fo

    Italian actor, playwright, comedian, singer-songwriter, theater director, painter, and political activist (1926-2016)

  11. 11.

    Although, this is often used with negative connotations, I see ideology as an inherent part of culture.

    Dario Fo

    Italian actor, playwright, comedian, singer-songwriter, theater director, painter, and political activist (1926-2016)

  12. 12.

    It is hard for power to enjoy or incorporate humour and satire in its system of control.

    Dario Fo

    Italian actor, playwright, comedian, singer-songwriter, theater director, painter, and political activist (1926-2016)

  13. 13.

    Every artistic expression is either influenced by or adds something to politics.

    Dario Fo

    Italian actor, playwright, comedian, singer-songwriter, theater director, painter, and political activist (1926-2016)

  14. 14.

    Our homeland is the whole world. Our law is liberty. We have but one thought, revolution in our hearts.

    Dario Fo

    Italian actor, playwright, comedian, singer-songwriter, theater director, painter, and political activist (1926-2016)

  15. 15.

    It is extremely dangerous to talk about limits or borders. It is vital, instead, that we remain completely open, that we are always involved, and that we aim to contribute personally in social events.

    Dario Fo

    Italian actor, playwright, comedian, singer-songwriter, theater director, painter, and political activist (1926-2016)

  16. 16.

    Know how to live the time that is given you.

    Dario Fo

    Italian actor, playwright, comedian, singer-songwriter, theater director, painter, and political activist (1926-2016)