From Library Journal
Behan, a lecturer in Italian studies at the University of Canterbury, has written the first political biography of Dario Fo, Europe's leading radical dramatist, and the recipient of the 1997 Nobel Prize for Literature. Chapters 1, 2, and 6 provide biographical information about Fo, necessarily intermixed with background on Italy's postwar leftist political movements. Fo's greatest period--from 1968, when he broke with the commercial theater, until the late 1970s, when leftist movements began to wane--is recounted in particular detail. Chapters 3, 4, and 5 analyze (mostly in political terms) his most frequently performed theater pieces, Accidental Death of an Anarchist (1969), Mistero Buffo (1968), and Can't Pay? Won't Pay! (1974). Behan, the author of a study of the Communist Party and the working class in Milan, is unusually qualified for this undertaking. Recommended for collections supporting advanced study in either modern Italian politics or political theater; Tony Mitchell's Dario Fo: People's Court Jester (1984. o.p.) may be sufficient for public and undergraduate collections.
-Robert W. Melton, Univ. of Kansas Libs., Lawrence Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
Review
"Behan.... has written the first political biography of DarioFo....Chapters 1, 2, and 6 provide biographical information about Fo, necessarily intermixed with background on Italy's post-war leftist political movements. Fo's greatest period - from 1968, when he broke with the commercial theater, until the late 1970's, when leftist movements began to wane - is recounted in particular detail. Chapters 3, 4, and 5 analyze (mostly in political terms) his most frequently performed theater pieces, .....Behan is unusually qualified for this undertaking. Recommended for collections supporting advanced study in either modern Italian politics or political theater..." -- Library Journal."..reveals much about Fo's political and theatrical life, .."-- Kirkus Reviews"There are few in-depth studies of Fo available in English, and this book is a welcome addition....Behan traces Fo's career in a chronological fashion, from his initial involvement with "legitimate" theater and television, to his alternative theater groups and his valorization by middle-class audiences and high-cultural entities alike ( Fo received the Nobel Prize in 1997). The descriptions and analyses of Italian politics are especially well done." --CHOICE
