The Tale of a Tiger

Last updated
The Tale of a Tiger
Written by Dario Fo
Original language Italian

The Tale of a Tiger (Italian : La storia della tigre) [1] is a dramatic monologue by Dario Fo. Fo collected material for it during a June 1975 visit to China with his wife Franca Rame and other members of their theatre company, and he toured around Italy with it in 1978. [1] [2]

Contents

Plot summary

During Mao's Long March across China, a revolutionary soldier is wounded. His comrades leave him behind. Gangrene sets in, and he believes that he is about to die. He drags himself into a cave and falls into a deep sleep. When he awakens, he is confronted by the sight of a tiger and her cub. What follows is a comic narrative about their domestic life together, as the tiger nurses him back to health. [3]

Translations

Ed Emery has carried out an authorised English translation. [4]

Further reading

Related Research Articles

Dario Fo Italian actor, playwright, comedian, singer-songwriter, director, painter and politician

Dario Luigi Angelo Fo was an Italian actor, playwright, comedian, singer, theatre director, stage designer, songwriter, painter, political campaigner for the Italian left wing and the recipient of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Literature. In his time he was "arguably the most widely performed contemporary playwright in world theatre". Much of his dramatic work depends on improvisation and comprises the recovery of "illegitimate" forms of theatre, such as those performed by giullari and, more famously, the ancient Italian style of commedia dell'arte.

<i>Accidental Death of an Anarchist</i> Theatrical play by Dario Fo considered a classic of 20th-century theater.

Accidental Death of an Anarchist is a play by Italian playwright Dario Fo that premiered in 1970. Considered a classic of 20th-century theater, it has been performed across the world in more than forty countries. The play is based on the 1969 Piazza Fontana bombing.

Elizabeth: Almost by Chance a Woman is a play by Dario Fo written in 1984. Franca Rame plays Elizabeth I of England, while Fo plays her transvestite cosmetic adviser.

Franca Rame

Franca Rame was an Italian theatre actress, playwright and political activist. She was married to Nobel laureate playwright Dario Fo and is the mother of writer Jacopo Fo. Fo dedicated his Nobel Prize to her.

Johan Padan and the Discovery of the Americas is a one-man play by Dario Fo, recipient of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Literature. It is narrated by Johan Padan, a fugitive from the Spanish Inquisition who accompanies Christopher Columbus on his fourth voyage to the New World.

Trumpets and Raspberries is a satirical play by Dario Fo, first performed in 1981.

The Pope and the Witch is a satirical play by Dario Fo, first performed in 1989. It depicts the Pope as a paranoid, drug-addled idiot and the Vatican as corrupt.

<i>The Open Couple</i>

The Open Couple is a play by Dario Fo. As with some of Fo's other plays, it is a romantic play which was written with his wife Franca Rame. It was written in 1983.

Isabella, Three Sailing Ships and a Con Man is a 1963 two-act play by Italian playwright Dario Fo, the recipient of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Literature. Some people got angry: Fo received threatening letters, was assaulted in Rome with Rame by Fascist groups who also threw rubbish at them, while another performance was disrupted by a bomb scare. He recounted this event in the prologue of Johan Padan and the Discovery of the Americas.

The First Miracle of the Infant Jesus is a monologue by Dario Fo, recipient of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Mistero buffo is Dario Fo's solo pièce célèbre, performed across Europe, Canada and Latin America from 1969 to 1999. It is recognised as one of the most controversial and popular spectacles in postwar European theatre and its broadcast in Italy prompted the Vatican to denounce it as "the most blasphemous show in the history of television".

The Devil with Boobs is a two-act play by Dario Fo, recipient of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Archangels Don't Play Pinball is a 1959 two-act play by Dario Fo. The play uses the metaphor of a pinball machine—a new innovation in Italy at the time of and one of which Fo and his wife Franca Rame were fond— to convey mechanisation and conspicuous consumption.

The Tumult of Bologna is a historical fiction monologue by Italian writer Dario Fo.

The Birth of the Jongleur is a dramatic monologue by Dario Fo.

An Arab Woman Speaks is a dramatic monologue from Fedayn (1972) by Dario Fo and Franca Rame.

The Butterfly Mouse is a dramatic monologue by Dario Fo.

Corpse for Sale is a one-act play by Dario Fo.

Michele Lu Lanzone is a dramatic monologue by Dario Fo.

<i>Mamma Togni</i>

Mamma Togni is a dramatic monologue by Dario Fo and Franca Rame, set in Italy after the Second World War. It was performed in 1973.

References

  1. 1 2 Mitchell 1999, p. 157
  2. Mitchell 1999, pp. 142–143
  3. Tony Mitchell, The People's Court Jester, Methuen Books, London, 1999
  4. English translation: http://www.geocities.ws/dariofoarchive/tiger.html