On April 8 and 9 the Italian Cultural Institute of Amsterdam presents ‘Lu Santo Jullare Francesco’ by Dario Fo and Franca Rame performed by Mario Pirovano.
From the work of the 1997 Nobel laureate in literature comes a memorable piece on the life of St. Francis.
An original portrait of the most extraordinary innovator of Christian thought, which communicates the major themes that run through contemporary society to us.
‘Lu Santo Jullàre Françesco’ is a monologue in which an entire series of characters from medieval Italy comes to life: Popes and Cardinals, soldiers on the battlefields, peasants and market vendors, monks and stonecutters.
Historical reality and folklore are interwoven in retracing some of the most significant moments in the life of Francis: the request for approval of the Rule to Pope Innocent III, the sermon to the birds, the encounter with the wolf, the eye disease…
Working on folklore, canonical texts from the fourteenth century and on documents that have emerged in the last fifty years, Dario Fo has created a non-hagiographic image of Saint Francis: stripped of the myth, we find a provocative, coherent, courageous, ironic character.
After all, it was Francis who described himself as the “jester of God”, and this was in the very same years in which the Emperor Frederick II issued an edict against the “Joculatores”, considering them to be obscene buffoons!
Francis knew the technique, the craft and the absolute rules of the jester. He never preached according to ecclesiastical convention; in fact, he rejected the sermon format. We also know that he sang, recited, moved with his whole body, arms, legs, feet, causing much amusement but also eliciting emotion among those present…- Fo said.
More information at iicamsterdam.esteri.it, www.mariopirovano.it and www.compagniateatraleforame.it.