DARIO FO: THE LAST MISTERO BUFFO To Have US Premiere At Scena! Italian Theater Festival
The documentary will screen at Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò at NYU, presented in Italian with English subtitles
Kairos Italy Theater along with Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò at NYU and the Italy-based KIT Italia will present the United States premiere of the documentary Dario Fo: The Last Mistero Buffo (90 minutes, Clipper Media, 2022) as part of their In Scena! Italian Theater Festival with exclusive screenings at Casa Italiana Zerilli Marimo' at NYU (24 W 12th St, New York, NY 10011) on Tuesday, May 5th at 6:30pm and Wednesday, May 13th at 8pm. The film will be presented in Italian with English Subtitles.
The film centers on the final staging of Mistero Buffo in Rome-the farewell to the stage of its author and performer, Nobel Prize winner Dario Fo, who passed away just two months later. It tells the story of a journey that begins in Dario Fo's dressing room, with his most famous show, and unfolds into a kaleidoscopic voyage that takes us from Turkey to Argentina-places where his works, with their powerful and critical dramaturgy, still challenge the status quo and those in power today.
On August 1, 2016, in Rome, in front of three thousand spectators, the great actor, playwright, and Nobel Prize winner Dario Fo, at the age of ninety and at the end of his career, is about to go on stage with one of his signature works, Mistero Buffo, a revolutionary piece of theater that was censored at its debut.
The master smiles as he thinks about the many theater companies around the world performing his works. In Istanbul, where the company Teatra Jiyana Nu (New Life Theatre) stages the comedy Clacson, Trombette e Pernacchi in Kurdish-also previously censored by Turkish authorities on charges of terrorist propaganda. In Buenos Aires, where Muerte accidental de un ricotero adapts Accidental Death of an Anarchist to address the case of Walter Bulacio, who was killed by the police in 1991.
The film follows the actors in an ongoing dialogue in which Fo's theater becomes a space for reflection on the human condition and the distortions of power, overcoming linguistic, geographic, and cultural differences.
"Bringing Dario Fo: The Last Mistero Buffo to New York in this centenary year, and at this particular moment in history, means bringing Dario exactly where he would have wanted to be: in front of an international audience, beyond borders, close to people," said Mattea Fo, Presidente of Fondazione Fo Rame ETS. "Gianluca Rame's documentary captures something truly rare-the last moment my grandfather stepped onto the stage, on August 1, 2016, in Rome, with Mistero Buffo, the performance of a lifetime. Two months later, he was gone. But it also tells the story of a kind of theater that remains, even today, among the most performed Italian repertoires in the world-a universal language still necessary for expressing injustices and issues we can no longer ignore. What is most striking is how the theater of Dario Fo and Franca Rame continues, everywhere in the world, to be a space for reflection on the human condition, the distortion of power, and the voice of the oppressed. New York is not just a stop in the centenary: it is proof that this message has never stopped traveling. The program "100 Years for 100 Countries," which the Foundation has developed over the years, stems precisely from this belief: that the legacy of Dario and Franca does not belong to Italy alone, but to the entire world-and that celebrating it means, above all, continuing to keep it alive."
On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Dario Fo (Sangiano, March 24, 1926), the Fo Rame Foundation ETS is, in fact, organizing a year full of events, activities, and initiatives to celebrate the artistic, cultural, and social legacy of one of the most influential figures in contemporary theater and of our time. The Foundation has set the goal of celebrating Dario Fo's centenary with at least one event in 100 countries around the world and 100 events in Italy, involving theaters, festivals, universities, schools, libraries, cinemas and film archives, associations, and bookstores. To learn more about the worldwide centenary celebration for Dario Fo please visit centenariodariofo.it/.
In Scena! Italian Theater Festival NY In 2013 Kairos Italy Theater, the preeminent Italian theater company in New York City, together with the Italian KIT Italia, created In Scena! Italian Theater Festival NY, the first Italian theater festival to take place in all five boroughs of New York City and beyond. The festival's first edition was part of the 2013 Year of Italian Culture in the United States and it was supported by the Embassy of Italy in DC and Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimo' at NYU that became right after one of the three organizers. The festival has since become an annual event.
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