Archangels Don't Play Pinball

Archangels Don't Play Pinball (Italian title: Gli arcangeli non giocano al flipper)[1] 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.[2]

Archangels Don't Play Pinball
Written byDario Fo
Original languageItalian

Plot summary
The play by the Ljubljana Drama Theatre in 1963

A group of young Milanese men play a prank on one of their group - "Lofty". They arrange a fake marriage to a prostitute, who pretends to be a beautiful Albanian princess. Lofty has a problem - he needs to get identity papers from the Ministry. The only way he can do this is to become a dog. He is taken into a local kennel, where he is eventually bought by a circus owner. After various further adventures, Lofty eventually awakes, only to find that it has all been a dream. But the lovely lady is still there with him. Archangels don't play pinball with people's lives.[3]

Song

The play is also noted for its use of song. One example is "Stringimi forte i polsi" (Hold my wrists tightly together) which the protagonist Il Lungo (Stretch) sings to an "Albanian" prostitute whose wrists he is bound to.[2] It would later be the theme tune to the TV programme Canzonissima.[4]

Translations

Ed Emery has carried out an authorised English translation.[5]

Further reading
  • Mitchell, Tony (1999), Dario Fo: People's Court Jester (Updated and Expanded), London: Methuen, ISBN 0-413-73320-3.

References
  1. Mitchell 1999, p. 65
  2. Mitchell 1999, p. 67
  3. Mitchell 1999, pp. 65–70
  4. Mitchell 1999, pp. 67–68
  5. Fo, Dario. Archangels Don't Play Pinball, trans. Ed Emery, Methuen Books, London, 1987. Online version at http://www.geocities.ws/dariofoarchive/archangels.html
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