Harold Pinter’s Nobel speech was critical of the UK and US. But to have more impact, he might have looked at Dario Fo’s Nobel talk a few years earlier. “By equating the modern farceur with the jesters of the middle ages, Fo made it clear that ideas have always been dangerous — and that artists who entertain by rattling those in power continue a noble tradition. Art, truth and politics will always be in conflict. Fo made this point using laughter, and because of this, his Noble lecture was an extension of his art. Pinter’s lecture is not. His Nobel speech stands in opposition to his plays, the best of which exhibited the power of few words and silence.”