At the age of 90 died, Dario Fo, Nobel prize for Literature in 1997 – LA NACION (Argentina)

The writer felleció this morning in Milan; he was admitted for lung problems

At the age of 90 died, Dario Fo, Nobel prize for Literature in 1997. Photo: Reuters

ROME.- Farewell to the jester Italian, who won the Nobel prize for Literature in 1997. At 90 years and 7 months, the playwright, actor, director, writer, author, illustrator, painter, designer, and activist, Dario Fo, died this morning at the hospital Sacco of Milan, where he was from two weeks ago in the hospital for lung problems.

Provocative nato, histrionic on-stage, critical of power, and always from the left, Fo he died just hours before it was known the Nobel Prize for Literature this year. The son of a chief of station of train, the playwright, was born march 24, 1926 in Sangiano, a small town of the lake maggiore, in northern Italy.

His biographies include that of a young man was going to study architecture or Fine Arts. But at the outbreak of the Second World War he was forced to give up everything to join the resistance against Mussolini. Anti-conformist, he never ceased to make policy, making the theater a weapon of social denunciation.

Married to actress, playwright and writer Franca Rame, companion of a whole life, that he died three years ago, Fo wrote his first play in 1944. Character “uncomfortable” for the power, always followed closely the turbulent Italian politics, as well as the rest of the world. Together with Rame -in a moment he came to be senator of a small party of center-left-was one of the critics most ardent of former premier Silvio Berlusconi , who played and ridiculed in the comedy “The anomalous two-headed”.

Jester, anti-clerical and left-wing, such was his passion for politics that ten years ago, at 80, is introduced in the primary of the centre-left as a candidate for mayor of Milan (who lost).

At the age of 90 died, Dario Fo, Nobel prize for Literature in 1997. Photo: AP

In the “tradition of the minstrels of the Middle Ages, which punishes those powers and restores the dignity of the oppressed”, as defined in the Swedish Academy which awarded him in 1997 the Nobel Prize for Literature, Dario Fo never forgot the only time he was in Argentina , in 1984.

Then, a may 8, in the Teatro Municipal General San Martín premiered “Mystery Comic”, one of his most famous works, full of attacks on the Church, which made right-wing organizations to launch threats for the suspension functions. So one day he went so far as to explode a tear gas grenade in the room, which was followed by an unstoppable brawl of insults, trompadas and sticks. Two days later, all of this is out of the room to the street, a dozen injured and more than a hundred detainees.

The margin of this episode, which Fo took away a pleasant memory of our country. “I remember this beautiful, and precisely on that occasion, the argentine public showed a lot of courage, consistency. In other cities of Europe had been afraid of going to the theater after something like that. In contrast, the public increased, and it showed that I did not want absolutely to give in to this kind of provocations and terrorism,” said Fo to this correspondent, in an interview conducted in 2007. In the same opportunity, the writer praised the country, beyond the presence of a “right infamous”. “I am very fond of Argentina. I have seen a nation with extraordinary qualities, although there is a right infamous that has plunged the country, and has deprived them of vitality… But the creativity, the intelligence, and the expressive charge that demonstrate the argentines, men and women, it is really huge.”

Until the end of their days, Fo remained lucid and with his sharp sense of humor. A few weeks ago, after Turkey decided to ban all of their works, broke out in laughter at the comment on the fact in an interview with the newspaper La Stampa. “It’s as if I’ve been given another Nobel prize,” he said. The president Turkish Erdogan not only what had been banned, but next to it was also removed from the scene to Shakespeare , Cechov and Brecht. “To be with them is just an honor. Hopefully no one will tell Erdogan that I am the only one alive,” he added, ironically, as always.

The death of Fo caused great regret in the cultural world of Italian. “With Dario Fo, Italy loses one of the great actors of the theatre, of culture, of the civic life of our country. His satire, his quest, his work in the scene, his polédrica artistic activity are the legacy of a great Italian in the world,” said the premier Italian Matteo Renzi , to send their condolences to the family.

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