Isabel, Three Sailing Ships, and a Con Artist

by Nobel-prize winner Dario Fo

Isabel, Three Sailing Ships, and a Con Artist
This insightful, satirical, subversive comedy, set after and before 1492, revolves around the tragicomic deeds of an actor who is sentenced to death for having performed a banned play by Fernando de Rojas. The unfortunate actor, while on the gallows, is offered an opportunity to do one last show with his acting company. It must be a show about Columbus and Queen Isabella.

Dario Fo (1926 – 2016) was an Italian actor, playwright, comedian, singer, theatre director, set designer, singer-songwriter, illustrator and political activist. His work flourishes through improvisation and includes the re-discovery of the ancient Italian style of the Commedia dell’Arte. His works, translated into over 30 languages, are a great indictment against corruption, organized crime, deviant political and religious power, racism and war. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1997 as “international recognition of Dario Fo as one of the most important figures of the theatrical