Dario Fo: Stage, Text, and Tradition ed. by Joseph Farrell and Antonio Scuderi (review)

Keviews 249 translation); it is also the world of Ruth Berlau (as presented by Hans Bunge, despite all efforts to stop him), who declares of Brecht's view of women, "In fact, he despises us women deeply" (qtd. in Bunge 268, my translation), and says of Brecht's treatment of collaborators (often women, including Berlau herself, or gay men), "Hardly any capitalist would behave like such a swine" (letter, my translation); and it is the world of Elizabeth Hauptmann and her own attempts to get recognition for her contributions to "Brecht" plays such as He Who Says res and The Threepenny Opera. In her essay, Martin looks candidly at a blind spot concerning women and performance in a classic Brecht piece, the 1935 essay on Mei Lanfang entitled "On Chinese Acting," reprinted in the volume in Bentley's translation. As Martin firmly but politely observes, "While feminist theorists and artists have made exemplary use of Brecht's work as a model for their ideas, we would do well to look past Brecht to his original sources" (235). I sincerely hope that Martin will herself be encouraged to do more work on original sources rather than doing what this edited volume generally does: present carefully preserved Brechtiana - pieces that necessarily reflect distant times and values with , in my jUdgement, too little new material and introductory matter to help us understand the historical context of the original pieces or to justify buying this new-but-not-new book. WORKS CITED Berlau, Ruth, Letter to Bertolt Brecht. 10 Mar. 1951. Ms, BBAI186/22, Bertolt Brecht Archive, Berlin, Bunge, Hans, Brechts Lai-!u, Darmstadt: Hennann Luchtcrhand, 1985. Steffin. Margarete, KonJu/se verstelit nichts von Frauen. Ed. lnge Gellert. Berlin: Rowohlt,I991. JOSEPH FARRELL and ANTONIO SCUDERI, eds. Dario Fo: Stage, Text, and Tradition. Carbondale: Southern lIIinois University Press, 2000. Pp. 232, iIlus. $49.95 (Hb); $24.95 (Pb). Reviewed by Rosalind Kerr, University ofAlberta This important collection of eleven recent articles by international scholars reexamines Dario Fo's legacy for a post-Marxist age, attempting to reconcile his Arevolutionary politics" with his "conservative poetics" (3). The problem, for the editors, is that Fo's lack of theorizing about his methods of altering his audiences' political perspectives puts him in danger of being remembered only as a gifted farceur. The intent to remove Fo's work from orthodox Communist Party dictates is well taken, but, as the articles quickly reveal, separat- 250 REVIEWS ing his politics from his poetics creates a false dichotomy that not all of the authors successfully address. Since, as Joseph Farrell acknowledges, the popular traditions and radical performance techniques that Fo's poetics derive from belong to the subversive "anticanon" (88), it is counterproductive to treat them independently. Paolo Puppa's reassessment of Fo's place in Italian theatre makes this same observation, suggesting that his "great actor" and "popular entertainer" status is uniquely complemented by his "[incarnation of] an amalgam of various traditions [...J brought [...J together in an equilibrium, however precarious and contradictory" (189). His proposal that to understand Fo, we must look for the connections in the subversive, carnivalesque materials used even as his company underwent various shifts in response to audience expectations before, during, and after the radical period of the 1960s will guide my assessment of the other articles, which deal with various aspects of Fo's work as actor, playwright , songwriter, and activist over his fifty-year career. Rather than looking for depoliticization, the important issue is to locate durable components of his art. Several of the contributors stress the centrality of Fo's acting skills to his particular brand of improvised theatre. Walter Valeri, who for many years assisted with Fo's tours abroad, considers that his actor-centred theatre, with its roots in popular Italian theatrical traditions, comes naturally to Fo and his partner, Franca Rame. A consummate performer, he interacts with his audiences , gradually leading them towards the social change he advocates. Ron Jenkins, who does simultaneous translations of Fo's live perforrtlances, confirms that Fo's brilliant acting depends on an organic combination of language and gesture, full of rhythms and builds. He stresses the highly self-conscious nature of Fo...