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

With names like "Run for Your Wife" and "Wife Begins at Forty," Cooney's plays are ready to pratfall easily into the puddle of "take my wife, please..." humor or to lollygag about the "garters-'n-boxers" school of comedy à la Benny Hill (where nothing is funnier than a dropped pair of drawers). Ho

Clown, Commedia dell'arte, Funny, Physical force, Physical theater, Playful, Profane

19th century theater, Baroque theater, Commedia dell'arte, Epic theater, Expressionist theater, Inter-war theater, Medieval theater, Musical comedy, Musical theater, Naturalist theater, Neo-romantic, Neoclassical theater, New american musical, New musical hybrids, Off-broadway, Political theater, Realist theater, Renaissance theater, Sturm und drang (storm and stress), Symbolist theater, Theater production, Theory & criticism