Theatre and Power: Conspiracy theories in the political-religious language of the 20th century popular comic actor

The analysis centres on the study of the language and the style of popular comic actors who aspire to educate through satire, treating certain Italian cases that remix the traditions inherited from commedia dell’arte, recuperating elements from popular festivities, dances, sermons and ceremonies, as well as from holy plays, the performances of jesters, and Medieval dramatic poetry. The study identifies a sector of comic figures, from Dario Fo to artists such as Paolo Rossi, Beppe Grillo and Roberto Benigni who, within the area of conspiracies, have reinvented the language of the stage with a fascinating contamination of high theatre with low practices, and who have stood up to the abuse of power, above all spiritual, with a parodic and sacrilegious twist. The aim, therefore, is to show on one hand which conventions of the art of acting and of the popular performances of jesters are used by new comics to denounce the hate speech hidden in religious history, and on the other to delineate how those comics, through their shows, are promoters of new stories and new conspiratorial discourses.