''The Devil with Boobs'' (
Italian title: ''Il diavolo con le zinne'') is a two-act play by
Dario Fo, recipient of the 1997
Nobel Prize in Literature
)
, image = Nobel Prize.png
, caption =
, awarded_for = Outstanding contributions in literature
, presenter = Swedish Academy
, holder = Annie Ernaux (2022)
, location = Stockholm, Sweden
, year = 1901
, ...
.
First produced at
Messina
Messina (, also , ) is a harbour city and the capital of the Italian Metropolitan City of Messina. It is the third largest city on the island of Sicily, and the 13th largest city in Italy, with a population of more than 219,000 inhabitants in ...
's Teatro Vittorio Emmanuele on 7 August 1997 (directed by Dario Fo), an English production occurred at the National Theatre Youth project in Summer 1999.
Described by Fo as "a
Machiavellian comedy, a gigantic late sixteenth-century intrigue, with judges and devils, housekeepers possessed by devils, hermits, gendarmes, torturers and even a monkey", it featured an homage to his long-time collaborator
Fiorenzo Carpi who had died earlier that year (1997).
Plot summary
As described by Cappa and Nepoli, 'Alfonso Ferdinando de Tristano, an incorruptible, progressive magistrate (who disapproves of torture as an instrument of persuasion) investigates an arson in the cathedral. Unhappy about being subjected to his investigation, the prominent citizens of the town launch a campaign to discredit him, employing a couple of devils. One of them is instructed to enter the magistrate's body "through the most suitable orifice, the anus," transforming him into a rogue, a debauchee, a hypocrite and a black marketeer. Due to a misunderstanding, the devil Barlocca enters the body of Pizzocca Gannàssa, Alfonso's elderly and ungainly housekeeper, who is transformed into a delectable, busty lady (the 'boobs' of the title). Led astray by this beauty, the magistrate is dragged into court, but the she-devil allows him to be acquitted. Nonetheless, he is condemned to become a galley slave in a subsequent trial.'
Translations
Ed Emery has carried out an English translation.
[Fo, Dario. ]
The Devil in Drag
', trans. Ed Emery, in ''New Connections 99'', Faber and Faber, London, 1999.
Further reading
*
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Devil with Boobs
1997 plays
Plays by Dario Fo