This text by Nobel laureate Dario Fo represents one of the greatest challenges for an actor. In a furious hour of performance, the actor uses Harlequin-style clownish seduction to test his skill, invoking the traveling players of the Middle Ages. Dario Fo collected and enriched their monologues, tasking the actor with juggling dozens of characters while holding comedy in one hand and tragedy in the other. Lucidly and uncompromisingly dissecting the relationship between the “little man” and authority, he plays with biblical motifs from the collective imaginary of Western civilization, subverting familiar stories of saints (mysteries). By transforming them into “comic mysteries” (Mistero Buffo), he exposes hypocrisy and our tendency toward blind faith and the shifting of responsibility onto others.
The Vatican called the broadcast of this work on Italian national television the most blasphemous act in its history — a remark Dario Fo took as a compliment. Though he was barred from theatrical institutions and many sought to challenge his Nobel Prize, it did not change the fact that both he and this seminal work became a permanent part of theatrical history.
Lee Delong is an exceptional expert on the performative world of Dario Fo, while Dražen Šivak is the ideal actor for the virtuosity and joy of play required for this acting carousel. Public and critical acclaim only confirm it!
CREDITS
Director: Lee Delong
Performer: Dražen Šivak
Text: Dario Fo
Translator: Tatjana Peruško
Musician: Igor Dorotić
Lighting: Vesna Kolarec
Design: Klarxy
Production: Kazalište Grupa in co-production with Triko Cirkus Teatar
Premiere: 2019
AWARDS
Golden Mask for Best Actor, Art Trema Festival, Ruma (2019)
Special Jury Award, Festival of Small Scenes and Monodrama, Sarajevo (2019)
Audience Award, TIFBU Festival, Bugojno (2019)
Mladen Crnobrnja Gumbek Award for Best Actor, Days of Satire, Zagreb (2020)
Best Monodrama Award, Monodrama Festival, Krapinske Toplice (2020)
Main Prize, Be:femon – Monodrama Festival, Bečej (2020)
Special Mention, 13th Gumbek Days, Zagreb (2020)
