The Tricks of the Trade

by Dario Fo

Clown, political activist, playwright, actor: Dario Fo is an unclassifiable genius of the modern theatre. In his "mini-manual for actors," Fo lays bare the tools of his craft. With the assistance of his wife, playwright Franca Rame, he explains how text, song, humor, mime and political intelligence can be fused into brilliant "popular theatre."

Genres: Theatre, Nonfiction, Essays, Humor, Literature

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Dario Fo was an Italian satirist, playwright, theatre director, actor, and composer. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1997. In 2007 he was ranked Joint Seventh with Stephen Hawking in The Telegraph's list of 100 greatest living geniuses. His dramatic work employed comedic methods of the ancient Italian commedia dell'arte, a theatrical style popular with the proletarian classes. He owned and operated a theatre company with his wife, the leading actress Franca Rame. Dario Fo died in Milan on October 13th 2016, at the age of 90.

Reviews

[hart · Rating 4 out of 5]

essentially a transcript, edited for clarity, of a six-day lecture event by the playwright-actor-clown power diad Fo & Rame. a sweeping history cum how-to of comedic popular theatre & technique — of particular delight to me bc i've had the fortune of training in some of the material, and can imagine the panache it came with onstage :) it's dense with information in tiny type, + no small amount of windbaggery which elicited the occasional eye roll or snooze from moi, but what can you expect from a teacher, letalone a performer in workshop! surprised tbh that it received "immediate critical acclaim," bc if i didn't know something about the world of clown i would find it all pretty opaque. but! it conveys a lot of great craft-wisdom and welcome prole sentiment that rises above the shop talk

[Cerys Pryce · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fo certainly knows his stuff but I don’t think it translates all that well in book form. It’s not the most intellectual or informative book for someone trying to understand the motives of his plays but still has a lot of merit.

Nevertheless, I’m a big fan of Fo and will be reading more.

[Gianluca Valente · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dario Fo svela la complessità dietro il mestiere di attore con sapienza e maestria. Il volume, diviso in paragrafi ognuno con un titolo a sé, è un vero e proprio reportage della dignità dell'attore, molto spesso erroneamente ridotta al ruolo che interpreta.

[Frank Ashe · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the form of a 6 day class for theatre students, Fo gives us the basics of theatre and acting. Plus more!

[Concetta Maddaluno · Rating 4 out of 5]

Non amo molto i saggi, ma ho apprezzato questo che mi ha permesso di ampliare la mia conoscenza teatrale. Lo considero migliore di Mistero Buffo

[Yokusun Basi]

Manuale minimo dell'attore (Stile libero) (Italian Edition) by Dario Fo (1997)

[Héctor Toledo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probablemente el libro de teoría teatral más entretenido que he leído hasta la fecha, pero también uno de los más caóticos.
El título de "manual" no resulta nada apropiado, ya que en realidad es una recopilación de charlas en las que se encadenan consejos, demostraciones, anécdotas, comentarios sobre textos, apuntes de historia del teatro, fundamentos antropológicos...Un pupurri maravilloso, pero poco preceptivo y poco operativo.