Mario Pirovano performs his own translation of controversial Italian political comedy writer Dario Fo's ten-year-old piece about St Francis of Assisi, the first performance of the full English text, directed by the author in a very small but nicely-adapted new Pleasance space taken over from Rocket Venues.
The play is part lecture, part storytelling, part stand-up comedy with Pirovano as an amiable, enthusiastic and energetic performer of this suite of entertaining and funny stories about St Francis, the 'holy jester' of the title. He begins with an introduction to place the thirteenth-century saint in a cultural and historical context before telling four stories about him: his tirade against the people of Bologna for their continuing war with the neighbouring city of Imola; Francis's visit to Pope Innocent III to ask permission to tell stories from the Gospels in common language instead of in Latin; the imminent death of the future saint and the fight between various people over where he should die; Francis meeting and talking to the wolf to try to modify his behaviour.
Pirovano's engaging personality allows him to appear to chat casually to the audience and slip smoothly into his very physical and funny storytelling, including some hilarious retellings of Jesus turning water into wine and the Feeding of the Five Thousand. He apologised for looking at his watch, explaining that he was not used to having to conform to a finish time and had already cut the piece down from one hour and fifty minutes to seventy-five minutes.
With a pedigree such as this play has, it may be thought that it should be in the International Festival programme rather than in a tiny Fringe venue, but perhaps the work of the still-radical 83-year-old Fo belongs more on the fringes of theatre outside the mainstream. This production is the most entertaining and funny history lesson you could hope to see, given a captivating performance by the charismatic Pirovano.