Dario FoAwards:
Nobel Prize in Literature-1997.
He became
both the first Italian to be selected for the award since Eugenio
Montale in
1975 and the first Italian playwright to be chosen since Luigi
Pirandello in
1934Nobel Committee
in its citation praised Fo as a writer
"who
emulates the jesters of
the Middle
Ages in
scourging authority and upholding the dignity of the downtrodden"
Born: 24/03/1926 in Sangiano which is around
60 km North-West from Milan, Italy
Citizen: Italy
Language: Italian
Dario Fo, arguably the most widely performed playwright in
contemporary world theatre, was born in a middle class family. His
father worked in Italian State Railways, a job, that required great deal
of travel for the family also. The Senior Fo was an actor also and
Dario's mother was also a writer. Thus Dario inherited the trait of
writing and acting and story telling from his parents.
Dario studied in Brera Academy in Milan but the chaos of Second World
War ended his studies. He actively helped his father in smuggling
allied soldiers and refugees to Switzerland in the disguise of Lombard
peasants.
After the War, he returned to Brera Academy taking up course in
Architecture but left his studies before the final examination. This
was followed by a nervous breakdown & doctors advised him rest and
also told him to do things that relaxed him. Fo took to painting. Fo
married Franca Rame of a theatrical family in June, 1954. The couple
had a son who also became a writer.
Fo wrote and acted in plays with a wide spectrum of themes such as
abortion, corruption, drug addiction, racism, organized crime, war ,
sexism etc.He
is also considered as one of the world's most important contemporary
playwrights, forging subversive comedy, clowning, unusual linguistic
experimentation, and brilliant playwriting into a comedy of complete
originality. In a first-person monologue that bends and mutates
language and historical fact, Johan Padan and the Discovery of the
Americas is a brilliant, vividly imagined retelling of Christopher
Columbus's voyage to America. Told by a last-minute conscript assigned
to clean the shipboard pig stalls, who goes on to be adopted by a
tribe of Indians and help them fight conquistadors, it posits a
riotous alternate history in which the dynamics between native and
white, male and female, history and comedy are never what they seem.
Reaction to Fo getting the Nobel Prize was varied. The
announcement came as a shock to Italians and non-Italians alike.
Umberto Eco expressed delight that the award had been given to someone
who "does not belong to the traditional academic world. However,
Italian literary critic Carlo
Bo was
mystified: "I must be too old to understand. What does this mean? That
everything changes, even literature has changed." Fo's
fellow Italian laureate Rita
Levi-Montalcini expressed
bewilderment when asked for her thoughts and wondered if Fo were
Italian. Mario
Luzi,
a poet regarded as a likely next Italian recipient at the time,
slammed the phone down on one reporter: "I'll say only this. I've just
about had it up to here!" Reaction
from the many
English-speaking countries regarding Fo's work was equally fierce
as many regarded his work as unfashionable and outdated, belonging to
the 1970s and 1980s
Notable Works:
Un morto da vendere --
Corpse for Sale(1958),
Non tutti i ladri vengono a nuocere --
The Virtuous Burglar(1958),
Gli arcangeli non giocano al flipper--
Archangels don't Play Pinball(1959),
Morte
accidentale di un anarchico-- Accidental
Death of an Anarchist(1970),
Lettera dalla Cina --
Letter from China (1989) ,
Il Papa e la strega-- The Pope and the
Witch (1989)
Order Dario Fo's Books below
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