In the words of his translator, Ron Jenkins: "The Nobel committee's decision to honor Fo as a master of literature is a historic tribute to the theatre, which is still viewed by many as literature's bastard child; it is also the first time that the Nobel for the literary arts has been awarded to an actor. This courageous and controversial choice indirectly expands the modern definition of literature to include the power of the spoken word."

Volume One includes:
We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay!
Elizabeth
Archangels Don't Play Pinball
About Face

Mistero Buffo is Dario Fo’s one-man tour de force, in which he creates his own subversive version of Biblical stories. Infused with the rhythmic drive of a jazz improvisation, the immediacy of a newspaper headline, and the epic scope of a historical novel, Fo and his wife/collaborator Franca Rame have performed Mistero Buffo throughout the world to over 10 million people.

One of the major theatrical artists of the twentieth century, Italy’s Dario Fo was awarded the 1997 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Ron Jenkins’ translations of Dario Fo have been performed across the country. He is the theater department chair at Wesleyan University.

Mistero Buffo, or The Comic Mysteries, is based on research into mediaeval mystery plays; The Accidental Death of an Anarchist concerns the "accidental" (or not) death of an anarchist railwork who "fell" (or was pushed) to his death from a police headquarters window in 1969; Trumpets and Raspberries is "A deeply subversive farce" (The Guardian) in which the boss of Italy's biggest car manufacturer FIAT, is mistaken for a left wing terrorist.

This version of the play was premiered in London in 2003.

Commentary and notes by Joseph Farrell.