The Theatre of Dario Fo and Franca Rame

Abstract

Dario Fo is one of the most prolific and best-loved contemporary European playwrights. To speak of his work in terms of ‘text’ is to misunderstand his living art, to speak of it excluding Franca Rame is impossible. As a team, they have worked tirelessly at mounting their scathing, and often hilarious, satires of Italian society and politics. These plays, which are true theatrical events, are aimed at raising the proletariat’s awareness of the suppression of popular culture by the ruling classes, and the necessity of dismantling bourgeois society. In this aim, and often in method, they take their inspiration from the medieval ‘giullare’ (a travelling jester), who sought to combat the ruling class with the potent weapon of laughter. Their work has always been directly linked to the class struggle, in particular the problems of the rights of workers, students, prisoners and women.