"He uses literature in a unique way, to expand boundaries someway," said Fisher, who has published extensively on Fo, met him at a London conference and has corresponded with him. "His body of work changed the way we respond to what we see. On those grounds, I think Fo is an incredibly deserving recipient."
The award, which carries a $1 million purse in addition to the prestige, was announced Thursday. Fo is a dramatist who satirizes Italian culture, and while his topics often have a universal theme of the little man being caught in the middle, Fisher said Fo's work has not been perceived well everywhere, particularly in America.
The announcement that Fo won was greeted with shock by theater critics, the Vatican in Rome and the playwright himself.
Fisher was no less surprised. "I can count on one hand the number of playwrights who have on the Nobel Prize for Literature. It's quite an event in theater."
Fisher said the very same qualities that made Fo a difficult, and courageous choice for the Swedish Academy also made enemies in the Vatican and with Italian governments.
A master of topical satire, Fo believes strongly in the need for theater to deliver a nessage as well as entertainment. His work, Accidental Death of an Anarchist, which gained some play in the United States, including a Wabash College performance in 1991 with Fisher directing, chronicled Italian police brutality and the ensuing trial.
Fo's play was performed during the trial and was updated and modified daily as the trial developed.
"What's odd about winning the Novel Prize for Literature - as much as it delights me - is he considers his work to be throw-away," said Fisher.
Fo, who also takes the lead in many productions, believes the topical nature of his satirical plays makes his work last only as long as the issues do, Fisher explained. Fo, in some ways, he added, is a sort of newspaper playwright.
In addition to attacking police brutality, Fo has also satirized the wealth of the Roman Catholic Church compared to the poverty of its constituents as well as various Italian governments.
Fisher's own interest in the playwright goes as far back as the professor's college years. A student of the commedia dell'arte, Fisher has made Fo a frequent study in papers as well as his book The Theater of Yesterday and Tomorrow: Commedia dell'arte on the Modern Stage.
The commedia is a dramatic form in which the actors are prominent: there is no playwright and the structure of the play itself is loosely defined. The style originally in the Renaissance, fell out of use during the 18th and 19th centuries and has begun to return with the work of Fo.
Fisher said his style is close to his own heart. "I'm very interested in a kind of theater that is actor-centered."
His interest in the dramatist escalated when they met at a London conference on the commedia dell'arte, where Fo attended a lecture by Fisher. The two shared lunch and thoughts on theater. When Fisher completed his book, he sent one to the eventual Nobel Prize winner.
"He was very kind to it," said Fisher.
Fo's winning of the Nobel Prize had a special resonance in the light of last year's controversy over Wabash's production of Angels in America, Fisher added, like Fo, Angels author Tony Kushner ruffled some feathers, giving Fisher and the theater department a headache to deal with.
"It reminded me it's worth it," said Fisher of Fo gaining the award. "If you do something worth doing, it's certainly going to rankle someone somewhere."
-written by Kevin Condon, The Journal Review, Oct. 15, 1997: 1A.
