Mistero Buffo

Mistero buffo: Giullarata popolare
Written by Dario Fo
Characters
  • Narrator/Herald/Introducer
  • Virgin Mary
  • Mad Woman
  • Giullare, a jongleur
  • Peasant
  • The Fool
  • Death
  • Christ
Date premiered October 1, 1969 (1969-10-01)
Place premiered Casa del Popolo,
Sestri Levante, Italy
Original language Italian
Setting The Holy Land, First Century C.E.

Mistero buffo ("Comical Mystery") is Dario Fo's solo pièce célèbre, performed across Europe, Canada and Latin America from 1969 to 1999.[1] It is recognised as one of the most controversial and popular spectacles in postwar European theatre and its broadcast in Italy prompted the Vatican to denounce it as "the most blasphemous show in the history of television".[1]

The performance is a series of small one-act plays built around the idea of the travelling players of medieval times, who would travel to towns and villages, bringing the latest news; Fo also performs theatrical pieces which are sometimes subversive in their content. The final section of the collection consists of Passion Plays narrating the life and times of Christ.

Fo's work originates in the surviving texts and descriptions of the giullari.[2] The title of the piece is borrowed from Mystery-Bouffe by Vladimir Mayakovsky.[2] An authorised English translation has been carried out by Ed Emery.[3]

Further reading

References

  1. 1 2 Mitchell 1999, p. 3
  2. 1 2 Mitchell 1999, p. 4
  3. ↑ Dario Fo, Mistero Buffo, trans. Ed Emery, Methuen Books, London, 1988. Online version at http://www.geocities.ws/dariofoarchive/mistero.html
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