Mistero Buffo by Dario Fo

First produced:Mistero buffo: Giullarata popolare, 1969; first published, 1970 (English translation, 1983)

Type of work: Drama

Type of plot: Tragicomedy

Time of plot: Early first century c.e.

Locale: The Holy Land

Principal characters

• Narrator/Herold/Introducer,
• Virgin Mary,
• Mad Woman,
• Giullare (Jongleur),
• Peasant,
• The Fool,
• Death,
• Christ,

The Story:

A group of flaggelants bemoan the slaughter of the innocents, which is itself portrayed onstage. The slaughter is followed by a maddened mother addressing a wooden figurine representing the Madonna. The mother asks God how many innocents, including her child, need be slaughtered so Jesus can live. Then she spots what she says is her child, who has survived, and shows him to the wooden Madonna. It is a lamb.

Two beggars, one blind and one crippled, cooperate. The blind man carries the cripple, who spots Christ being flagellated. The cripple has heard that Jesus performs miraculous cures, so he wants to get away to avoid losing his affliction, which enables him to beg successfully. The blind man will not move, however, and both are cured as Christ passes. One rhapsodizes about his restored vision; the other bemoans his repaired legs.

A print of Christ as a Bacchus-like figure appears beside an angel recounting Christ’s first miracle at the marriage at Cana. The angel is interrupted by a drunk, who says Jesus transformed water not for the benefit of others but simply to enjoy the wine himself. The drunk describes a semi-inebriated Christ jumping on the table and exhorting the wedding guests to drink up.

A peasant successfully plants fallow land. A priest rules that the land belongs to a noble, but the peasant refuses to yield the land he has planted. His barn and animals are burned; his wife is raped before his children, who go on to die. Despondent, the peasant decides to hang himself. Christ passes by and asks for water, however, and, when he is sated, he gives the peasant the wit and eloquence to convey Christ’s message. He uses this power and intelligence to become a jongleur, or itinerant folk-actor

A peasant is born to sleep on the floor. His months of toil are prescribed in poetry: January, muck out the barn; February, sweat in the fields; and so forth. All he owns or does is taxed. A postscript informs the audience that paradise on earth is for bosses; for farmers or laborers, paradise comes after death. In the next scene, based on a picture of a pickpocket at the opening of Lazarus’s tomb, a bet is taken on whether Christ can revive Lazarus, and when he succeeds, the loser goes to pay, only to find his purse stolen. As the crowd cheers, the loser yells, “Stop, thief!”

Pope Boniface VIII, richly attired, lamely conducts a liturgical chant while carrying a crucifix. The Christ comes to life. The pope struggles to hide his finery, but Jesus kicks him in the posterior, leading Boniface to say he relishes Christ’s crucifixion, which he will celebrate by drinking, dancing, and whoring, because he is Boniface.

The Fool is at an inn. The landlady announces Christ’s arrival for what will be the Last Supper. Death appears as a woman, come for Jesus. The Fool waylays her in conversation and says he likes Death’s smell of chrysanthemums and would happily go with her to death. She deems him either mad or a poet. Replying that every poet is a fool and every fool a poet, he sets about seducing her.

The Madonna meets friends on the street who try to block her from a crowd. Mary sees three crosses, and one friend tells her that two are to be used to crucify thieves. Mary sympathizes for the thieves’ mothers, who probably do not know their sons’ fate. Mary Magdalene enters and starts talking about Jesus before the friend silences her. The friend blurts that Magdalene is a prostitute and protests Jesus’ pity for such undesirables. Mary replies that Christ works to give such people hope. Veronica enters, carrying a bloody cloth. She says that when she used it to wipe the face of the third condemned person, an imprint formed. Seeing it, Mary recognizes her son. The friend berates Veronica for upsetting Mary.

The Fool is working as a barker at the crucifixion. He helps the crucifiers when they say they will throw dice with him. After he wins, the Fool offers to return their money if they will free Christ. The foreman calls the Fool the fool of all fools, as they would be crucified themselves if they took Christ down from the cross. He then agrees when the Fool proposes replacing Jesus with Judas’s corpse, but Christ declines to be taken down. The Fool reports that Jesus said that Death told Him that His crucifixion would redeem others. The Fool foretells that Jesus’ principles will be betrayed and wars will be fought over Him. Christ replies that if but one person follows His path, His death will not be in vain, whereupon the Fool calls Christ the fool of fools. Telling the crucifiers he has changed his mind, the Fool leaves furiously.

Mary, breaking through a chorus trying to shield her from Calvary, wails, asking why her son is being crucified. She vows revenge, but Jesus asks her not to shout. Mary rails against the Archangel Gabriel, who had promised her she would be blessed. Christ says He must die, and Mary, after fainting, attacks Gabriel, telling him he cannot understand earthly suffering or her grief, especially as he has never birthed or raised a child. Gabriel acknowledges that Mary’s loss will enable humankind, for the first time, to enter Heaven.

Bibliography

Behan, Tom. Dario Fo: Revolutionary Theatre. Sterling, Va.: Pluto Press, 2000. Excellent discussion of Mistero Buffo and very useful bibliography, both on Mistero Buffo and on Italian politics of the 1960’s.

Ghelardi, Marco. “Doing Things with Words: Directing Fo in the UK.” In Research Papers on the Theatre of Dario Fo and Franca Rame: Proceedings of the International Conference on the Theatre of Dario Fo and Franca Rame, Cambridge, 28-30 April 2000, edited by Ed Emery. London: Red Notes, 2002. Edited by a major translator of Mistero Buffo. In addition to Ghelardi’s essay, this collection includes cogent discussions of translating Fo; puppets; Fo’s coproductions with his wife, actor Franca Rame; and the theater they founded in the 1990’s.

Hirst, David. Dario Fo and Franca Rame. New York: Macmillan, 1989. Best book on bibliography; crucial chapters on the monologues and on politics and the theater.

Jenkins, Ron. Dario Fo and Franca Rame: Artful Laughter. New York: Aperture Foundation, 2001. A trove of information, including photographs of Fo in life and on stage, discussion of his artwork, and details of stagings of Mistero Buffo without any scenery or with “historical” flats painted by the playwright.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. “Dario Fo: The Roar of the Clown.” In Acting (Re)considered: Theories and Practices, edited by Phillip B. Zarrilli. New York: Routledge, 1995. Excellent essay on Fo’s views on acting and his performance technique.

Maeder, Costantino. “Mistero Buffo: Negating Textual Certainty, the Individual, and Time.” In Dario Fo: Stage, Text, and Tradition, edited by Joseph Farrell and Antonio Scuderi. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2000. Addresses many aesthetic features of the 1969 and 1977 versions of the play and their geneses. A clearly written, cogent, and important essay.

Mitchell, Tony. Dario Fo: People’s Court Jester. London: Methuen, 1985. Indispensable chapters include “Mistero Buffo: Popular Culture, the Giullari and the Grotesque” and “Biography and Output, 1951-1967.” Giullari is Italian for medieval and early Renaissance street actors. The subchapter “Mistero Buffo in London” contains a trove of information about Fo’s type of theater and its reception in the United Kingdom into the 1980’s.

Scuderi, Antonio. Dario Fo and Popular Performance. New York: Legas, 1998. Indispensable. In addition to the many Mistero Buffo sections, it includes important sections on adapting popular techniques, the dialectic of text and performance, subverting religious authority, and the power of humor.