Italian playwright, performer, and 1997 Nobel Prize winner Dario Fo is known for his subversive political savvy and ludicrous farces. Fo has often been called the true heir of Aristophanes for his gift of outrageous political satire and slander. Fo's humble beginnings as a mime inform his comedies wi

Cartoonish, Commedia dell'arte, Feminist, Political, Political theater, Wise assy

Playwright Alice Childress blazed across off-Broadway like a supernova, startling audiences and critics with her candid, finely crafted characterizations of African Americans. Childress remarked that she concentrated "on portraying the have-nots in a have society, those seldom singled out by mass med

African american fiction, African american theater, Egalitarian, Feminist, Political

Classical, Epic theater, Existentialist literature, Expressionist theater, Neurotic, Political, Sardonic

Wary friend of Existentialism and gentle foe of nature's illusions, Irish novelist, poet, and playwright Samuel Beckett is one of the foremost artists of the twentieth century, and certainly one of the most influential. Awarded the Nobel Prize in 1969 against his more modest wishes, Beckett specializ

Absurd, Depressive, Existentialist literature, Minimal, Modernist literature, Repetition, Repetitive, Theater of the absurd