Essays on Dario Fo: Remembering the Consummate Playwright/Performer

Antonio Scuderi, a leading scholar of Dario Fo’s theatre, introduces new voices with new perspectives on the Nobel playwright, since his passing in 2016. An international group of contributors explores Fo’s multifaceted activities in the performing arts, including his roles as writer, performer and set and costume designer. The essays of this volume cover Fo’s earliest experience on the Italian stage, working with innovative director Giorgio Strehler and the legendary mime Jacques Lecoq. They investigate his use of older forms of Italian theatre, including the commedia dell’arte, and his adaptations of both the jester and the clown in his stage persona.

The interdisciplinary approaches in these essays investigate a wide variety of topics concerning Fo’s ideas on politics, Marxism, religion, folklore and anthropology, which forged his theatre. This collection should interest scholars of both theatre and Italian studies, and help to provide insight into the continuing international popularity of Dario Fo’s plays.