Ten Nobels for the future

Dario Fo was born on March 24, 1926 in Leggiuno-Sangiamo (Varese, Italy), in a family with a long anti-fascist tradition: his father worked for the railways and his mother was of country stock.

He moved to Milan at a very early age and attended the Brera Academy of Fine Arts. He then enrolled at the Politecnico of Milan (Faculty of Architecture), which he left before graduating (although he has received several honorary degrees over the years). During that period he started improvising farces and satires, played by himself.

His work with Italian State Television (RAI) started in 1952 with his writing and performing monologues for "Poer nano" ("Poor Chap"), which were later performed at the Teatro Odeon in Milan.

His work with the writers Franco Parenti and Giustino Durano produced "Il dito nell’occhio" ("The finger in the eye") in 1953, a play of political and social satire, and "Sani da legare" ("As sane as a hatter") in 1954, dedicated to everyday life in the Italy of early Christian-Democratic governments. The text was heavily cut by censors and their work together ended.

Fo then began a period in the cinema, where he worked as an actor and a screenwriter. In 1959 he organized a company with his wife, Franca Rame, with whom he created some of his best-known plays such as "Isabella, tre caravelle e un cacciaballe" ("Isabel, three caravels and a bullshitter", 1963-1964) and "Settimo: ruba un po’ meno" ("The Seventh Commandment: steal a bit less", 1965-1965).

Fo returned to television with the first center-left coalition government, and five of his farces were performed. He then directed the show "Chi l’ha visto?" ("Who saw it?"). In 1968, with Franca Rame, he hosted "Canzonissima", the most popular musical show in Italy. But when the censors made heavy changes to the script they left the show in protest.

The 1969-1970 theatrical season saw the performance of "Mistero buffo", perhaps the most famous work of Dario Fo, where he develops his research into the origins of popular culture, "reinventing" Medieval texts recited in an archaic-sounding dialect called "Padano".

In 1969 he founded the "Collettivo Teatrale la Comune", which occupied the "Palazzina Liberty" in Milan, becoming one of the landmarks of the political theatre in Italy.

After the death of Giuseppe Pinelli, a railway worker, he put on stage "Morte accidentale di un anarchico" ("Accidental death of an anarchist"), and after the coup d’état in Chile performed "Guerra di popolo in Cile" ("The people’s fight in Chile"), a tribute to the government of Salvador Allende with heavy references to the Italian situation.

In 1977, Dario Fo appeared again on television after a 15-year exile. In recent years he has continued to produce plays such as "Johan Padan a la descoverta de le Americhe" ("Johan Padan and the discovery of the Americas") and "Il diavolo con le zinne" ("Devil with boobs"). He also works as a director and as a teacher: in 1987 he wrote Manuale minimo dell’attore (The Actor’s Essential Handbook).

In 1997 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for having "emulated the jesters of the Middle Ages in scourging authority and upholding the dignity of the downtrodden".

"Dario Fo", says the official note of the Nobel Foundation, "with a blend of laughter and gravity opens our eyes to abuses and injustices in society and also the wider historical perspective in which they can be placed. [...] His strength is in the creation of texts that simultaneously amuse, engage and provide perspectives. As in Commedia dell’arte, they are always open for creative additions and dislocations, continually encouraging the actors to improvise, which means that the audience is activated in a remarkable way".

Fo used the award ceremony in Stockholm to launch a new campaign against the European Parliament’s directive on patenting of living organisms, thus becoming a symbol of the campaign promoted by the "Comitato Scientifico Antivivisezionista" ("Scientific Committee Against Vivisection") and other European associations with the watchword "You don’t need to be a genius to oppose the patenting of genes".

1998
The Social Impact
of Biotechnology