Archangels Don't Play Pinball

by Dario Fo, R.C. McAvoy (Translator), A-M. Giugni (Translator)

English (translation)Original Italian

Genres: Theatre, Plays, Italy, Drama

131 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1959

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

[Μιχάλης Παπαχατζάκης · Rating 4 out of 5]

Αυθεντική ιταλική κωμωδία, απ' αυτές που σε κάνουν να μην κρατιέσαι απ' τα γέλια. Μια παρέα φίλων οργανώνει μια φάρσα στον «Ψηλό» (που ο πατέρας του του έδωσε το περίεργο όνομα Τempo Sereno, δηλαδή Καθαρός Ουρανός), να τον παντρέψουν με μια αλβανίδα πριγκίπισσα που στην πραγματικότητα είναι μια ιταλίδα πουτάνα, την Αγγέλα. Για να βρούνε χρήματα για τον γάμο εκβιάζουν έναν ζαχαροπλάστη πως τάχα έπαθαν δηλητηρίαση από τα γλυκά του. Ο «Ψηλός» στη συνέχεια μπλέκει με την απέραντη γραφειοκρατία του ιταλικού κράτους και στην πορεία συμβαίνουν ακόμα πιο τραγελαφικές καταστάσεις.

Λεπτή κοινωνική σάτιρα από τον μαιτρ του είδους, μια από τις πρώτες του. Όσο για τον τίτλο; Οι αρχάγγελοι είναι οι προστάτες του ύπνου στην ιταλική θρησκεία και το φλίπερ (που στέλνει το μπαλάκι εδώ κι εκεί, σαν τον «Ψηλό») τότε, το 1958, άρχισε να μπαίνει στις καφετέριες των ιταλών. Άσχετο. Απλά κάπου αναφέρεται και το ένα και το άλλο. Γενικά, ο τρελός αυτός τίτλος μάλλον επιλέχθηκε για να προδιαθέσει τον θεατή για τα γελοία κι αστεία που θα δει.

[Katerina Pavlakou · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5⭐

[Chris Linehan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is mostly funny. Reading the slapstick absurdity probably lessens the effect of the play more so than if it wasn’t absurdly slapstick, but such is the way of reading plays. Nonetheless, there’s some clever writing in it. It took me most of the first act to get into the play overall. I wish it had ended as Lofty was raging against the world to discover everything had only been a dream. If it had ended with Lofty raging: “It was just a dream… Hey, but that doesn’t count… it’s too easy to end your stories like that… When you don’t know how to take it any further, you just say that everything was a dream, and that’s that.”. This could have gone into the archangel speech and then have been repeated, either with malice or with sobs and despair. I can’t fault Fo for still believing in a happy ending in the midst of absurdity. Sixty-five years more of the absurdity that was just coming into its own in the late fifties makes happy endings seem quaint. Svejk eventually collapses with the Empire. Lofty succumbs to the bureaucracy. Who plays pinball nowadays, anyhow?

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

This play follows a group of men in Milan who prank their friend. They trick him into thinking he can marry a princess, who is actually a prostitute in disguise. He decides to legally be declared a dog so that he can get his legal papers for the marriage, but in-so-doing gets purchased by a circus owner. He wakes up from the ridiculous dream with the woman next to him.

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