Edinburgh Festival 2009: Francis the Holy Jester

Written and directed by Dario Fo and performed by long standing collaborator Mario Pirovano, Francis the Holy Jester is a comic monologue, fused with morality tale and tragic poignancy, revealing the forgotten life story of Saint Francis of Assisi.

Despite a seeming mismatch at the start between the tiny space and a bolder scale of acting, Pirovano transpires to straddle both conversational and informal profession and confession, with consummate clowning routines.

One leaves his company and Fo’s writing feeling part of an oral tradition and both tickled and moved, provoked and humbled by this education of an extraordinary life.