Staging Dario Fo and Franca Rame - Anglo-American Approaches to Political Theatre

This is the first extended treatment of the English translations, stagings, and reception of the political plays of Dario Fo and Franca Rame. Focusing on the United Kingdom and the United States, Stefania Taviano offers a critique of the cultural stereotyping and political conservatism that have pursued these playwrights in translation and argues for the possibility of remaining true to Fo and Rame''s political commitment while preserving the comic nature of their plays. Taviano shows how the choices made by the translators and stagers of Fo and Rame''s political theatre reveal attitudes toward foreign cultures and theatre generally and Italy in particular. Among the questions she poses are ''What characterizes the process of acculturation that takes place when political theatre is transposed from one culture to another?'' ''To what extent are images of foreign literary production affected by dominant translation practices and theatre traditions?'' Perhaps most important, ''What consti