Trumpets and Raspberries

Political Strife. Confusion. Chaos! No, not the aftermath of a certain referendum in June 2016. This is Italy in the 1980s, the backdrop for Dario Fo’s madcap farce Trumpets and Raspberries.

Revolving around a real political figure, Gianni Agnelli – head of the Fiat Corporation from 1966 to 2003 – this fictional plot mixes satire with a strong political message! When wealthy Agnelli is injured in a failed kidnap attempt, he is rescued by humble Antonio, one of his Fiat employees. Antonio flees the scene when people start shooting at him, leaving his jacket on Agnelli's body. The rich and influential Agnelli is taken to hospital in Antonio's jacket, where he mistakenly has his face reconstructed in the poor Antonio's likeness. Chaotic confusion ensues as Antonio finds himself the chief suspect in a kidnap plot - against himself!

Dario Fo was one of the key figures of European theatre and literature of both the 20th and 21st centuries, and died in October 2016. He was a thorn in the side of the political elite and ruling classes of Italy and beyond for over half a century – he was barred from entering the USA for many years – and won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1997, recognizing him as a writer who ‘scourges authority while upholding the dignity of the powerless’. This production marks the first major staging of this rarely seen work since his death.

Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual current events, is purely coincidental. (Especially Donald Trump, Philip Green and Brexit.)