Umbria officially launches its path to the 100th anniversary celebrations of the birth of Dario Fo (Sangiano, 1926 - Milan, 2016), a leading figure in contemporary theater and Nobel Prize for Literature in 1997. The multi-layered program, intended for an international scope, was presented in Perugia in the Clock Room of the National Gallery of Umbria, in the presence of the president of the Dario Fo and Franca Rame Foundation, Mattea Fo, and the director of the Foundation’s Archives, Stefano Bertea.
The choice of Umbria as the starting point of the celebrations is not accidental: the region was in recent years a place of reflection and creation for Fo, who considered it his creative refuge. The calendar of events, which will cover an entire year, from March 2026 to March 2027, includes previews as early as October 2025. The entire celebratory framework is being developed under the direction of the Dario Fo and Franca Rame Foundation, which will coordinate its content and dissemination on a national and international scale. Among the main projects is 100 years for 100 countries, an initiative that will include events in at least 100 states around the world, flanked by a widespread network of 100 events throughout Italy. The format will include theater performances, exhibitions, conferences, master classes, screenings and audiovisual productions, with the aim of keeping Fo’s cultural and artistic legacy alive and accessible.
“It is a valuable opportunity to bring back to the center the thought and expressive power of a universal author, capable of bringing distant cultures into dialogue through satire, irony and civic engagement,” says Umbria Region Vice President Tommaso Bori. “We have the task of reviving and disseminating the cultural legacy of an undisputed master who knew how to combine theater, art and political engagement, offering critical tools to read reality and defend the values of freedom, social justice and participation. As a digital councillor, I cannot but enthusiastically grasp Franca Rame’s foresight with respect to digitization and the emergence of the Internet. Her decision to begin digitizing the archive when the Internet was still an abstract concept for most people is an illuminating example of foresight and cultural democratization.”
"When we tell people about the 100 Years for 100 Countries project, many people’s eyes glaze over, thinking that organizing an event in at least 100 states borders on the impossible," says Fo Rame Foundation President Mattea Fo. “Few people know how Fo Rame’s repertoire is among the most translated and staged theatrical repertoires in the world. My grandparents’ plays have been translated into 54 languages, from 1960 to today there have been over 7 thousand productions in 78 different countries. We are talking about new staging of their plays, not single performances, which therefore are many more. The Centennial - will be an opportunity to realize - visually - how well known Dario Fo is in the world and to bring the new generations - especially Italians - to know the enormous legacy that Dario and Franca have left us, and how relevant and universal their texts still are. I thank on behalf of our whole family and the Fo Rame Foundation the Region of Umbria, the municipalities of Gubbio and Perugia, and all the institutions and realities that are joining with new projects to these Celebrations.”
“I am very happy that on the occasion of my father’s Centenary, the Region of Umbria and the municipalities that adopted us 45 years ago have joined forces for these celebrations,” says Jacopo Fo, Fo Rame Foundation board member and son of the Nobel laureate. “The centenary of Dario’s birth will enhance not only my parents’ work but also the extraordinary inventions of the Italian tradition of Commedia dell’Arte that inspired Shakespeare, Molière and all European theater. The events that the Fo Rame Foundation is organizing will be fundamental in making the grandeur of this Italian theatrical tradition known to the world.”
The Centennial program, as a whole, will cover a wide range of activities. At the center is an international conference, structured in five itinerant study days that will take place between Milan, Pisa and Rome, involving leading Italian and foreign universities. The initiative aims to stimulate discussion among scholars, researchers and students, creating opportunities for in-depth study on the author’s theatrical and political work, but also on his social commitment and the contribution he made, together with Franca Rame, to the Italian public and cultural debate of the second half of the 20th century.
On the performing arts front, the Centennial will offer new theatrical productions, with live performances that will take up the best-known texts from the Fo-Rame repertoire, entrusting their staging to directors and performers of the new generations. The performances will be designed to circulate in major Italian theaters, but also in international venues, with translations and adaptations aimed at different audiences. A further axis of the project will include the staging of exhibitions, both pictorial and documentary, drawn from the Foundation’s rich archives and Dario Fo’s private collection. These exhibits, which will include sketches, paintings, stage materials, scripts and photographs, will highlight the visual and plastic side of the artist’s work, which is not always valued as much as the theatrical side.
There will be no shortage of initiatives aimed at the world of education and research. The Foundation plans to activate academic paths and artistic workshops for students, young actors and scholars. The activities will include moments of study but also of practical exercise, with master classes conducted by professionals in the field. Finally, an important chapter will be devoted to the republication, in Italy and abroad, of the most representative works in the repertoire of Dario Fo and Franca Rame. The new editions will be enriched with critical apparatus and archival materials, and conceived in collaboration with publishing houses that will curate special versions designed especially for the centenary.
The calendar of celebrations also includes appointments within two important publishing events: Umbria Libri 2026 and the Turin International Book Fair. In these contexts, events, meetings and presentations dedicated to Dario Fo and his work will be organized, with the participation of actors, scholars, translators and exponents of the cultural world. The project for the Dario Fo Centenary is therefore proposed as an articulated and widespread platform, capable of involving the public on multiple levels and restoring the complexity of an author who has crossed as a protagonist the cultural, theatrical and political history of the Italian 20th century.
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| Dario Fo, program for the centenary of the Italian Nobel laureate's birth starts in Umbria |
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