The Unforgettable Theatre of Dario Fo
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Mumbai Theatre Guide
Mar 25, 2026, 6:08:59 AMMar 25
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Wednesday, 25 March 2026
Dear Reader,
The Unforgettable Theatre of Dario Fo
Had he lived, Dario Fo would have turned 100 on March 24. Ten years after his death, when there are curbs on free speech everywhere, his fearless theatre still shines like a beacon in the dark.
Michael Billington paid tribute to him in The Guardian. "In Britain we tend to separate political and popular theatre. The genius of Dario Fo, who was born 100 years ago on Tuesday, is that he brought them together in his multiple roles as dramatist, actor, director and designer. Along with his wife, Franca Rame, he took satire to the people and in plays such as Accidental Death of an Anarchist and Can't Pay? Won't Pay! he achieved a global reach that justly earned him the Nobel prize for literature in 1997."
He recalls an interview with Fo in 1983, that revealed just how much harassment he and his wife and collaborator Franka Rame had to endure. "Aside from provoking the wrath of both the Catholic church and the Communist party and being subject to physical intimidation, they faced 45 prosecutions from the Italian police. The other thing to hit me was that for Fo, who died in 2016, comedy was a means to a political end."
If Fo and Rame's work is still valued and performed all over the world, it's because his plays "make us confront cruelty, injustice and oppression in all their forms."
The Unforgettable Theatre of Dario Fo
Had he lived, Dario Fo would have turned 100 on March 24. Ten years after his death, when there are curbs on free speech everywhere, his fearless theatre still shines like a beacon in the dark.
Michael Billington paid tribute to him in The Guardian. "In Britain we tend to separate political and popular theatre. The genius of Dario Fo, who was born 100 years ago on Tuesday, is that he brought them together in his multiple roles as dramatist, actor, director and designer. Along with his wife, Franca Rame, he took satire to the people and in plays such as Accidental Death of an Anarchist and Can't Pay? Won't Pay! he achieved a global reach that justly earned him the Nobel prize for literature in 1997."
He recalls an interview with Fo in 1983, that revealed just how much harassment he and his wife and collaborator Franka Rame had to endure. "Aside from provoking the wrath of both the Catholic church and the Communist party and being subject to physical intimidation, they faced 45 prosecutions from the Italian police. The other thing to hit me was that for Fo, who died in 2016, comedy was a means to a political end."
If Fo and Rame's work is still valued and performed all over the world, it's because his plays "make us confront cruelty, injustice and oppression in all their forms."
"It was only in the theatre that I lived."
Oscar Wilde
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