Franca Rame, actress, playwright and wife of Dario Fo, dies at 84
Franca Rame has died in Milan at 84.
She was an Italian theatre actress with a talent for comedy, playwright and an outspoken political activist. She was married to Nobel laureate playwright Dario Fo who dedicated his Nobel Prize to her.
Rame came from a theatrical family in the north of Italy. After making her theatrical debut in 1951, she met Dario Fo and they married in 1954. Their long collaboration started soon after when they founded the Dario Fo–Franca Rame Theatre Company in Milan in 1958. Fo was the director and writer, and Rame the leading actress and administrator.
Later in the 1970s she started writing monologues which were hysterically funny but voiced strong feminist political messages, tackling subjects, especially related to sex, for the first time on stage. They shocked many, especially coming from the mouth of such a glamorous figure as Franca Rame.
In March of 1973, a group of fascists who were reportedly commissioned by high-ranking officials in Milan’s police force, abducted Rame, held her at gunpoint and dumped her in a van. She was raped, beaten, burnt with cigarettes, and they slashed her with razor blades and left her in a park. Demonstrating extraordinary will-power, she returned to the stage after two months with new anti-fascist monologues.
In the 2006 elections she was elected Senator for the Piedmont region.
There was a long applause after her passing was announced in Parliament this morning, followed by a minute’s silence.
Franca Rame – (18 July 1928 – 29 May 2013)
Graham Spicer, aka ‘Gramilano’, is a writer, director and photographer based in Milan. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy. His articles have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the Danza in Italia column for Dancing Times magazine. Graham was the historical advisor on Codice Carla, the 2023 documentary on Carla Fracci.
Graham also works as a dance photographer, and his photos have appeared in many books, theatre programmes, and magazines, including Dancing Times, Dance Spirit and Ballet2000, as well as all the major Italian newspapers.
He is a member of the Dance Section of The Critics’ Circle.
