Italy

Dario Fo

Born near Lago Maggiore in Italy in 1926, Dario Fo is an actor, playwright, comedian, director, songwriter and political campaigner. His first one-act play was produced in 1958 and since then he has written, directed and acted in over forty plays and theatrical productions. In 1997 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. In the words of the Nobel Prize committee: “He if anyone merits the epithet of jester in the true meaning of that word. With a blend of laughter and gravity he opens our eyes to abuses and injustices in society and also the wider historical perspective in which they can be placed.” The Pope’s Daughter is his first novel.

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Latest reviews

In imagining hilarious and scandalous interactions and snappy dialogue, Dario Fo brings the infamous Lucrezia Borgia to life.

— World Literature Today, Dec 22 2015

The Pope’s Daughter is Dario Fo’s first novel, published in Italy last year when the author, a playwright, political activist, and Nobel laureate in literature, was eighty-eight years old. The daughter in question is Lucrezia Borgia (1480–1519), once routinely classed among history’s villains: licentious, ruthless, scheming, and cruel.

— Barnes and Noble Review, Sep 28 2015

Last year, at the venerable age of 88, the Italian comic Dario Fo took on a new creative challenge. The veteran of more than 60 years as an actor, painter, director, stage designer and playwright (as well as the recipient of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Literature), he had in recent...

— Aug 14 2015

Note: Dario Fo was WINNER of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1997, though he had never written a book. Instead, he was recognized by the Nobel Committee for his more than forty plays, his acting, his directing and his “emulation of the jesters of the Middle Ages in scourging...

— Aug 10 2015

Writers and entertainers have long found rich fodder in the historical muck of the Borgia clan. Spanish interlopers at the height of the Italian Renaissance — the “original crime family,” as the popular Showtime series describes them — inspired works by Dumas, Victor...

— Aug 10 2015

Dario Fo has long had a soft spot for Lucrezia Borgia. The renowned Italian playwright and Nobel laureate has attacked the popular — and enduring — representation of the Renaissance aristocrat as a femme fatale, calling such depictions in TV shows like “The Borgias” near...

— Aug 7 2015

Lucrezia Borgia has been dogged by nasty stories since long before her death in 1519. Every age produces its crop of biographers marshaling evidence to prove conclusively that the nasty stories aren't true, that they were born as propaganda cooked up by the enemies Lucrezia's...

— Aug 6 2015

Dario Fo – playwright, comedian, Nobel Laureate – is an admirer of the 16th century form of street theater known as commedia dell’arte. These roving theatrical troupes employed masks, improvisation, wordplay and slapstick comedy to entertain the masses. The actors and...

— Jul 27 2015

In his debut novel, Nobel-winning playwright Fo draws a portrait of Lucrezia Borgia, she of infamy. Was Lucrezia "a monster, a poisoner, and a prostitute?" Or "a beauty [who] emanates...generosity, enthusiasm, passion, and willingness to make sacrifices for those she loves?"...

— May 20 2015