Franca Rame (18 July 1929 – 29 May 2013) was an Italian theatre actress, playwright and political activist. She was married to

Nobel laureate The Nobel Prizes ( sv, Nobelpriset, no, Nobelprisen) are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make ...

playwright Dario Fo and is the mother of writer Jacopo Fo. Fo dedicated his Nobel Prize to her.

Biography

Franca Rame was born in Parabiago, Lombardy, in 1929, into a family with a long theatre tradition. She made her theatrical debut in 1951. Shortly thereafter, she met Dario Fo, whom she married in 1954. Their son, Jacopo was born on 31 March 1955. In 1958, she co-founded the Dario Fo–Franca Rame Theatre Company in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard language, Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the List of cities in Italy, second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 ...

, with Fo as the director and writer, and Rame the leading actress and administrator. Rame continued working with Fo through many plays and several theatre companies, popular success and government censorship. She was active in Soccorso Rosso (Red Aid), writing letters and providing books for prisoners and assisting their families and lawyers. In the 1970s, Rame began writing plays (often stage

monologue In theatre, a monologue (from el, μονόλογος, from μόνος ''mónos'', "alone, solitary" and λόγος ''lógos'', "speech") is a speech presented by a single character, most often to express their thoughts aloud, though sometimes a ...

s) of her own, such as ''Grasso è bello!'' and ''Tutta casa, letto e chiesa'', which displayed a markedly feminist bent. In March 1973, fascists who were reportedly commissioned by high-ranking officials in Milan's

Carabinieri The Carabinieri (, also , ; formally ''Arma dei Carabinieri'', "Arm of Carabineers"; previously ''Corpo dei Carabinieri Reali'', "Royal Carabineers Corps") are the national gendarmerie of Italy who primarily carry out domestic and foreign poli ...

(Italian gendarmerie) abducted Rame, held her at gunpoint and dumped her in a van. They raped her, beat her, burnt her with cigarettes, slashed her with razor blades and left her in a park. She returned to the stage after two months with new anti-fascist monologues. Rame became a member of the PCI in 1967. She was a member of the Italian Senate representing the centre-left anti-corruption

Italy of Values Italy of Values ( it, Italia dei Valori, IdV) is a populist and anti-corruption political party in Italy. The party was founded in 1998 by former '' Mani pulite'' prosecutor Antonio Di Pietro, who entered politics in 1996 and finally left the ...

(IdV) party. In 2006, she was designated candidate for

President of Italy The president of Italy, officially denoted as president of the Italian Republic ( it, Presidente della Repubblica Italiana) is the head of state of Italy. In that role, the president represents national unity, and guarantees that Italian pol ...

by IdV's leader, Antonio Di Pietro, but she obtained only 24 votes on the first ballot of the presidential election. From 2010 she was, also with her husband, an independent member of the Communist Refoundation Party. She died in

in 2013, at the age of 83, and is buried at the city's Monumental Cemetery.

Partial filmography

* '' Ha fatto tredici'' (1951) * '' Poppy'' (1952) * '' Lo svitato'' (1956) * '' Rascel-Fifì'' (1957)

References

*D'Angeli, Concetta & Soriani, Simone (eds). ''Coppia d'arte. Dario Fo e Franca Rame'', Pisa, Plus, 2006 *Soriani, Simone. ''Franca Rame, l'altra metà del cielo''. "Fermenti", n. 254, 2022, pp. 86-96 *d'Arcangeli, Luciana and Pagliaro, Annamaria (eds). “Dario Fo & Franca Rame. Beyond the Rules”, ''Spunti e Ricerche,''Volume 31, 2016, published in 2017. *d'Arcangeli, Luciana. "Franca Rame’s Dowry: How the Rame Family Tradition Lives on in the Theatre of Dario Fo and Franca Rame" in Donatella Fischer (ed.) ''The Tradition of the Actor-Author in Italian Theatre.'' Oxford. Legenda, Italian Perspectives, 27, 2013, pp. 136–145. *Rame, Franca and Farrell, Joseph. "Non è tempo di nostalgia" – interview with Franca Rame, Della Porta Editori, 2013. * d'Arcangeli, Luciana. "The Rape by Franca Rame: Political Violence and Political Theatre" in Pierpaolo Antonello and Alan O'Leary (eds) ''Imagining Terrorism: The Rhetoric and Representation of Political Violence in Italy, 1969–2009''. Oxford, Legenda, 2009, pp. 101–115. * d'Arcangeli, Luciana. "Dario Fo, Franca Rame and the Censors" in Guido Bonsaver and Robert Gordon (eds) ''Culture, Censorship and the State in 20th Century Italy''. Oxford, Legenda, 2005, pp. 158–167. * d'Arcangeli, Luciana. ''Madness in the Theatre of Dario Fo and Franca Rame''. Forum Italicum, Stony Brook (NY), Spring, 2005, pp. 138–165. * d'Arcangeli, Luciana. 'Franca Rame: Pedestal, Megaphone or Female Jester?' in Ed Emery (ed) ''Research Papers on the Theatre of Dario Fo and Franca Rame''. Cambridge, 28–30 April 2000". London and Sydney, Red Notes, 2002, pp. 49–59. * Farrell, Joseph. ''Dario Fo and Franca Rame: harlequins of the revolution''. Methuen, 2001. * Jenkins, Ronald Scott. ''Dario Fo & Franca Rame: artful laughter''. Aperture, 2001. * * Valeri, Walter (ed). ''Franca Rame. A Woman on Stage''. West Lafayette, Bordighera Press – Purdue University, Indiana 2000.

External links

Official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rame, France 1929 births 2013 deaths Candidates for President of Italy People from Parabiago Italian Communist Party politicians Communist Refoundation Party politicians Italy of Values politicians Senators of Legislature XV of Italy Italian actresses Kidnapped Italian people Italian socialist feminists Italian women dramatists and playwrights Italian dramatists and playwrights Theatre people from Milan

Biography

Partial filmography

References

Further reading

External links