Dario Fo and the pope in Cambridge

In 1997, Italian playwright Dario Fo shocked the literary world by winning the Nobel Prize for literature. The Nobel judges praised Fo as a writer/performer "who emulates the jesters of the Middle Ages in scourging authority and upholding the dignity of the downtrodden." But the Catholic Church, often a target of Fo's anti-authoritarian satire, made clear its unhappiness: L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, called the decision "beyond all imagination,'' while here in the U.S., the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights called the award "a Nobel Prize for anti-Catholicism'' and declared "the deans of literature enjoy celebrating what the common folk regard as trash.''

Fo himself acknowledged the reaction in his Nobel lecture, saying:

"Sundry potentates - great electors of the Pope, bishops, cardinals and prelates of Opus Dei - have all gone through the ceiling, to the point that they've even petitioned for the reinstatement of the law that allowed jesters to be burned at the stake. Over a slow fire."

I'd never seen a work by Fo until last night, when I had the opportunity to go see the Nora Theatre Company's production of "We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay!" which runs through Sept. 28 at the brand new Central Square Theater in Cambridge. The play, written in 1974, is not among his most controversial (that honor may go to a play called "The Pope and the Witch,'' a 1989 work in which a paranoid pope thinks a group of children gathered to pray in St. Peter's Square are rallying for abortion rights).

"We Won't Pay!" is an anti-capitalist comedy about inflation and poverty with a touch of repression and revolution. Its satirical eye is focused on government, police and corporate indifference. But it offers a taste of Fo's willingness to mock Catholic devotional practices, with a fantastical (and funny) scene spinning out a zany story about the blessings and curses offered by one St. Eulalia, and also with an ongoing gag about a character's supposed decision to stop taking the pill because the pope has been appearing in her dreams.

The play (whose title is sometimes translated as "We Can't Pay? We Won't Pay!") is more than a bit unsubtle for my taste (and a bit of a predictable programming choice for Cambridge -- it was previously staged at the ART in 1999); you'll have to wait for the Globe's critic for an assessment of the production and the performances. But it certainly provides an opportunity to get the flavor of Fo's work, and more than a few laughs as well.

(Photo, of Scott Severance as Giovanni and Stephanie Clayman as Antonia, by Kippy Goldfarb/Carol Photography.)