Dario Fo and Franca Rame: Artful Laughter FROM THE PUBLISHER
"The New York Times called the announcement of Dario Fo's Nobel Prize in Literature "among the most unexpected and controversial in the ninety-seven-year history of the award." Some writers, politicians, clergymen, and self-proclaimed arbiters of culture were outraged by Fo's selection. Others sensed that the choice was courageous, not because of Fo's unorthodox politics but because of his unorthodox use of language and humor. In honoring for the first time a writer who is also an actor and a clown, the Swedish Academy expanded the officially recognized boundaries of literature to include the language of the body and the muscular truth of slapstick." Dario Fo and Franca Rame: Artful Laughter illuminates the carnival sensibilities of Fo and his life-long collaborator Franca Rame with an emphasis on the pictorial roots of their comedy. Drawing is essential to Fo's topsy-turvy vision of the world, and this book includes whimsical paintings and sketches by Fo that have never been published in the United States. It also includes excerpts from plays by him and Rame that have never before appeared in English. Fo is one of the world's most frequently produced living playwrights, and readers who encounter this collection of Fo's zany Harlequins and anarchic confidence men will understand why.
FROM THE CRITICS
Library Journal
The Nobel prize-winning Italian dramatist Fo and his frequent collaborator, Franca Rame, have been eliciting laughter and thought for almost half a century both as writers and as actors. They are modern commedia dell'arte entertainers with a social, political, and historical conscience. Jenkins's joint study is a much-needed critical review of their work. As Fo's official American translator, Jenkins has worked closely with the texts and the artists for several years. In this book, he communicates his deep commitment to and appreciation of their work, covering their biographies, artistic development, and philosophy and surveying many major works. With its extensive text samples, performance photographs, and reproductions of Fo's paintings, this book is both comprehensive and thoughtful. An anthology of plays, We Won't Pay! is the first volume in the collected works by this translator. The four plays collected here date from 1959 to 1986. In addition to the title play, the book includes "About Face," "Elizabeth: Almost by Chance a Woman," and "Archangels Don't Play Pinball." As translations, they are funny and agile and will be more accessible to Americans than earlier Fo translations, which were geared toward British audiences. Of course, since Fo is such an improviser, his actual performances may differ widely from one occasion to another and from what is presented here. These books belong together in public and academic theater collections. Thomas E. Luddy, Salem State Coll., MA Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
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