Dario Fo was an Italian playwright, screenwriter, director, performer, designer, songwriter, painter, and political activist. In his lifetime, his work was the most widely performed pieces of international theatre, and his plays have been translated into 30+ languages. His work typically features aspects of the classic Italian forms of theatre--notably the commedia dell'arte and the street theatre of the giullari--and offers criticism of politics, corruption, war, organized crime, racism, and the Roman Catholic Church. In 1997, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his vast contributions to theatre of the 20th century. In awarding the prize, the Swedish Academy lauded Fo as a writer "who emulates the jesters of the Middle Ages in scourging authority and upholding the dignity of the downtrodden."
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