Italian Theatre Festival: Mistero Buffo

(This is a past event and is no longer running)

 By Dario Fo with Matthias Martelli

Dario Fo ‘who emulates the jesters of the Middle Ages in scourging authority and upholding the dignity of the down-trodden’ reads the explanatory statement of the Nobel Prize awarded to him in 1997. Mistero Buffo is considered his masterpiece.

This unique work uses the deepest level of the popular tradition, reviving it and keeping it relevant in the present day by making references to contemporary life; the sacred enactments become opportunities to salvage the cultural heritage of the down-trodden, the lower classes, who can only respond with laughter and comedy.

Eugenio Allegri directs Matthias Martelli, a talented young actor of the Teatro della Caduta, in this popular jester play, which has been the inspiration for the story-telling theatre of the last twenty years.

“In Mistero Buffo, the actor is alone on stage, with no deceptions, aiming to involve the audience in the theatrical action. Our work originates from a form of theatre which, through body language rendered by sound, with onomatopoeia, with sudden shifts of the rhythm, with mime and the actor’s striking gesticulations, moves from story-telling to interpretation or even just evocation of the characters, converting them, as needed, from servant to master, from destitute to wealthy, from Saint to crook, to illustrate feelings, reactions, relations of that sacred and profane performance called Commedia dell’arte’ Eugenio Allegri.”

Written by:
Dario Fo

Directed by:
Eugenio Allegri

With:
Matthias Martelli

Production by:
Teatro Stabile di Torino – Teatro Nazionale
Teatro della Caduta