Unmasking the Holy Jester Dario Fo

Throughout his long and successful career, Dario Fo has based his theater on popular theatrical forms and the oral tradition. In many ways, this was at the heart of the controversy surrounding the decision to award him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1997. Influenced by the writings of Antonio Gramsci, Fo's mission has been to give dignity back to folk culture. A close look at his 1999 giullarata (one-man show) about Saint Francis of Assisi, The Holy Jester Francis (Lu santo jullàre Françesco), illustrates how he takes the liberty to retell history, which he believes has been molded to fit the ideology of the ruling class. The fact that Saint Francis, as well as other holy men of his day, used techniques of the giullari or street performers in order to communicate with the illiterate masses has been well established. Fo, however, recasts Francis in the mold of the giuillare that he defined for himself in his first giullarata, Mistero Buffo, that is, as a proto-Marxist voice of the disenfranchised lower classes. This essay focuses on the ways in which Fo deviates from official history in order to define his Saint Francis and frame his performance.