The (Replica) Bomb Symbol Analysis

Bertozzo’s bomb, which starts as a replica and becomes a real weapon, represents the blurred line between reality and fiction in this play. When the bomb first appears, Bertozzo immediately slips, throws it in the air, and terrifies everyone—until he reassures them that it doesn’t have a detonator. Fo creates a sense of dramatic tension and comic relief by leaving it unclear whether the bomb is real. And he also leaves it unclear what the bomb means. Bertozzo claims to know exactly how the bomb was built, but nothing about who built it. Although Feletti gets him to admit that its creator was probably just like himself: a demolitions expert with military ties. Again, Fo uses the bomb to tease his audience: is it a true replica created for the investigation, an excuse for the government to frame its left-wing enemies for the attack, or a clue to the bombing’s actual perpetrator—someone in the Italian military, or even Bertozzo himself?

At the end of the play, the Maniac puts a detonator on Bertozzo’s replica bomb, turns it in into a real weapon, and, ironically enough, blows up the police station with it. One last time, the bomb’s power as a dramatic tool is that it appears to be fake when it’s real, and it appears to be real when it’s fake. Of course, this is the whole purpose of Fo’s play: he  uses fiction to criticize the police’s very real negligence, abuses of power, and complicity in fascist terror. Indeed, Fo even uses the bomb to play a joke on himself: after a play that ends with a left-wing radical bombing a police station, what audience member would deny that the left could also carry out bombings like the attack at Piazza Fontana?