Comedy Critique of Pope and the Witch

The University of Minnesota’s The Pope and the Witch by Dario Fo is a play that emphasizes many political and religious issues that still affect the world today. It seems that with the content of the play, it should not be a comedy. However, comedic tropes are all over the play to give light to these serious issues and consequently turn a, what should be, drama into a more light-hearted, yet still controversial play. Comedic tropes such as satire, automatism, and situation add to this production in a comedic way to not only get serious political and religious opinions across to an audience in a lighter way through the characters, settings, and props, but also to give a new meaning to religious and political problems facing the world today through sarcasm and wit. However, even though this play is meant to be a comedy, it does have a serious moral to it.

The comedy in this production serves a very distinct purpose: to take some controversial weight off of the political and religious issues confronted. The Catholic churches today find Dario Fo’s play very offensive and has caused a lot of controversy in the past. It still causes controversy today, but directors keep adding more comedic affects to their productions to, in a sense, heal the wounds. I remember Bob Rosen saying later that he changed several things to add even more hilarity to his production. Without comedy in this play, I think the issues at hand would be taken way more seriously than intended, and the controversy surrounding the play would be much greater. This constitutes the purpose of the use of comedy in this play.

This play is predominantly satirical. Sarcastic humor is used constantly throughout this play to critique the Vatican and Catholic hierarchy systems. Most importantly, the Pope, a figure of authority, a role model of all that is holy and right, and whose decisions affect the lives of millions that follow Catholicism, is displayed as unintelligent, witless, and meek. This is the biggest satirical element of the play, which has also caused the most controversy, and it was executed brilliantly by Brant Miller. The Pope, who constantly speaks in front of millions of people, was portrayed as scared to face 100,000 children. Also, in the play, the Pope was being treated by a psychiatrist/therapist which showed instability in a very stable person. Another character used to criticize the Vatican was the security guard, who, like the Pope, also should have displayed a respectable ambiance. Instead, Dario Fo gave him what appeared to be more Mafia-like characteristics, completely opposite of what the Pope’s guard should portray. Also, the Pope’s personal monk was given more jester-like qualities rather than a more reserved personality. Satire is the comedic trope that signifies the characterization the most because of the qualities given to the actors. Without the obscurity of the differences in stereotypical characters, comedy would be much harder to attain.

The situation of the play was displayed through the set. Like the set designer explained in lecture, the set crew tried to create a large but private space since it was the Pope’s private chambers. The floor designs represented the grandeur that surrounds the room’s inhabitant, as well at the furniture. The red velvet, high-backed chairs epitome of royalty, which is what the Pope basically is for the Catholic community. There were also fancy ornamental decorations such as large, rounded windows, vases, velvet drapes, etc. that added to the elegance of the situation. From all of these elements of situation, many comedic tropes were evolved. First of all, the roundness of the big windows, at the set designer described in lecture, was crafted to evoke humor, whereas sharp angles do the opposite. One of the vases was used as a container for the Pope’s important documents, the drapes were used to hide within, and also, people stood on the red ‘royal’ chairs which all showed a comedic lack of respect for the grandeur of the Pope’s chambers. The situation of the first scene appeared very majestic and stately, which for me evokes a feeling of discomfort for fear of disturbing the staid feeling of the room. I think this scene helped in heightening the comedic tropes because “misbehaving” or “acting inappropriately” in such stately surroundings seems absurd. Situation was also expressed in the second act of the play when the setting moved from the Pope’s chambers to the underground lair of the witch and her heroin addicts. This was a much darker and bleak atmosphere, which I believe added a seriousness