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The Pleasance, London,
By Dario Fo and Franca Rame
Translated by Ed Emery
Running time: 75 minutes
Dates of run: Until October 11
Producer: Rhum + Clay
Performed by Julian Spooner
Directed by Nicholas Pitt.
Do we need to believe something to make it real? Conversely, if we believe something, does it become real?
The question is central to our post-truth times and to Dario Fo’s daring questioning of blind faith that was for years banned as blasphemous.
It is posed by the Jongleur, Fo’s wise fool of a hero. As a teller of the quintessential stories of fallen human nature, he portrays almost every social stereotype and even Jesus in an inversion of medieval Mystery cycles that makes for a tour-de-force one-man performance, relished by the virtuosically energetic Julian Spooner.
Directed by Nicholas Pitt, Spooner’s Jongleur from the outset sets us on edge as the comic is disturbing and the tragic borders on the ridiculous. Those with much to lose may well understand the impulse to call for a ban.
Spooner gives the voice of Jesus an uncanny similarity to Trump’s and if initially we question the channelling, the relevance becomes apparent.
Before we get there, we encounter a Deliveroo everyman, hustling for his tip and nailing the yawning social discrepancies with the words: “We’re all struggling – well maybe not all of us.”
After that, Spooner becomes a peasant, sometimes happy, sometimes sad, until he loses a David and Goliath battle with the evil lord of the valley and everything else, including a wife who moves with “the grace of a heifer”, a comic line that, with events, becomes tragic.
Cut loose to wander the world and recount Biblical tales, Spooner’s Marriage at Cana is derailed by the infuriating interruptions of a roaringly drunk wedding guest, while the Miracle of the Raising of Lazarus is focused on the heckling of a socially disparate crowd.
You could say the jokes are sometimes over-egged, but you could also say the whole point of this at once timeless and topical show is that human behaviour is profoundly discomforting.
Finally, the drawn-out agony of Christ on the cross is gripping and tragic, but not in the way we have traditionally expected.
Mistero Buffo,
The Pleasance, London,
By Dario Fo and Franca Rame
Translated by Ed Emery
Running time: 75 minutes
Dates of run: Until October 11
Producer: Rhum + Clay
Performed by Julian Spooner
Directed by Nicholas Pitt.
Do we need to believe something to make it real? Conversely, if we believe something, does it become real?
The question is central to our post-truth times and to Dario Fo’s daring questioning of blind faith that was for years banned as blasphemous.
It is posed by the Jongleur, Fo’s wise fool of a hero. As a teller of the quintessential stories of fallen human nature, he portrays almost every social stereotype and even Jesus in an inversion of medieval Mystery cycles that makes for a tour-de-force one-man performance, relished by the virtuosically energetic Julian Spooner.
Directed by Nicholas Pitt, Spooner’s Jongleur from the outset sets us on edge as the comic is disturbing and the tragic borders on the ridiculous. Those with much to lose may well understand the impulse to call for a ban.
Spooner gives the voice of Jesus an uncanny similarity to Trump’s and if initially we question the channelling, the relevance becomes apparent.
Before we get there, we encounter a Deliveroo everyman, hustling for his tip and nailing the yawning social discrepancies with the words: “We’re all struggling – well maybe not all of us.”
After that, Spooner becomes a peasant, sometimes happy, sometimes sad, until he loses a David and Goliath battle with the evil lord of the valley and everything else, including a wife who moves with “the grace of a heifer”, a comic line that, with events, becomes tragic.
Cut loose to wander the world and recount Biblical tales, Spooner’s Marriage at Cana is derailed by the infuriating interruptions of a roaringly drunk wedding guest, while the Miracle of the Raising of Lazarus is focused on the heckling of a socially disparate crowd.
You could say the jokes are sometimes over-egged, but you could also say the whole point of this at once timeless and topical show is that human behaviour is profoundly discomforting.
Finally, the drawn-out agony of Christ on the cross is gripping and tragic, but not in the way we have traditionally expected.
Barbara Lewis © 2025.
By Barbara Lewis • plays, theatre, year 2025 • Tags: Barbara Lewis, plays, theatre