SOURCE: "Dario Fo: The Roar of the Clown," in The Drama Review, Vol. 30, No. 1, Spring 1986, pp. 172-79.

In this essay, Jenkins argues that "Fo has developed a modern style of epic performance that speaks to his audience with the immediacy of a newspaper editorial, shifts perspectives with the fluidity of cinematic montage, and pulsates with the rhythmic drive of a jazz improvisation."

The intellectual complexity and bacchanalian passions of Dario Fo's epic comedy are usually reduced in translation to the flatness of a political cartoon. Even successful productions like Rennie Davis' version of We Won't Pay, We Won't Pay leave the audience with the impression of Fo as a clever satirist whose work can be comfortably categorized as political theater. This limited view ignores the subtler dimensions of Fo's talents. In their original versions Fo's plays are dense with poetic wordplay, visual references to medieval paintings, and sophisticated...