Dario Fo

Nobel Prize in Literature 1997

Italian writer (1926-2016), born in the village of San Giano, in Lombardy. Son of a railway stationmaster, amateur actor and man of strong socialist convictions, he wandered with the rest of his family throughout Northern Italy, depending on his father's professional obligations.
As a child, he spent his summers on his maternal grandfather's small farm, where he became fascinated by creative imagination. Reputed for his sharp wit and pointed satire, his grandfather played an important role in Dario Fo's intellectual development, teaching him the rudiments of fiction through witty dialogues with his fellow villagers, in which they discussed the socio-political situation of the country and village gossip.
The idyll of his adolescence was interrupted by the outbreak of World War II. Although the scarcity was not felt as much in rural areas, Dario Fo had to leave for Milan to continue his studies. Enrolling in the Brera School of Fine Arts, he was nevertheless forced to interrupt his classes when he was drafted into the army. Deserting, he chose to take refuge in an attic where his own parents hid Jews who were helping them cross the border into Switzerland.
After the war ended, Dario Fo resumed his studies, continuing not only at the Brera School but also enrolling in the Architecture course at the Polytechnic Institute of Milan. The city's cultural environment was quite conducive to theatre, and Fo began working as a set designer.
In 1951 he met Franca Rame, a descendant of a long line of actors, whom he married in 1954 and who became his invaluable assistant. That same year he premiered his first play, the monologue Poer Nano (1951), which, although having rather modest success, was broadcast on radio in eighteen episodes, granting Fo some notoriety. In 1959, and after an extensive contribution to revue theatre, he, along with his wife, founded a theatre company called Fo-Rame. The following year he achieved international success by staging the play Gli Arcangeli Non Giocano A Flipper, a satirical drama that tells the story of a thief who dreams of losing his identity.
Believing in the idea that theater was a vehicle for political ideals, he premiered La Signorina È Da Buttare (1967), a play that addresses themes such as the Vietnam War and the assassination of John Kennedy. Despite having founded another company in 1968, the Nuova ScenaWith ties to the Italian Communist Party, Fo closed it down in 1970 and distanced himself from that political body.
In 1969 it was the turn of Mister Buffo, a collage of medieval monologues with excerpts of his own authorship. Presented on RAI in 1977, it was considered by the Catholic Church to be the most blasphemous work in the history of television.
One of his best-known works, Accidental Death of an Anarchist It was released in 1970. The play tells the story of a political activist who was murdered by the police. Fo also generated great controversy with Non Si Paga, Non Si Paga! (1974), in which the people decide to stop paying taxes as a form of protest against the corruption that diverts them. Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1997, Dario Fo also dedicated himself to staging Rossini's operas.

In Infopédia. Porto: Porto Editora, 2003-2011.