Accidental Death of an Anarchist (Italian: Morte accidentale di un anarchico) is a play by Italian playwright Dario Fo that premiered in 1970. It has been performed across the world in more than forty countries. The play is based on the 1969 Piazza Fontana bombing and on the death of Giuseppe Pinelli while being interrogated by the police.[1]
The play opens with Inspector Francesco Bertozzo interrogating a clever, quick-witted and mischievous fraudster, simply known as the Maniac, in Bertozzo's office on the third floor of the police headquarters in Milan. The Maniac constantly outsmarts the dim-witted Bertozzo and, when Bertozzo leaves the room, intercepts a phone call from Inspector Pissani. Pissani reveals to the Maniac that a judge is due at the police station to investigate the interrogation of an "accidental" death of the anarchist, whilst the Maniac pretends to be a colleague of Bertozzo's and tells Pissani that Bertozzo is "blowing a raspberry" at him. The Maniac decides to impersonate the judge, Marco Malipiero, an opportunity he has been waiting a while for, and to humiliate the policemen responsible for the "accidental" death of an Anarchist. After Bertozzo re-enters his office, the Maniac is forced out of the office, taking Bertozzo's coat and hat to use in his disguise. Bertozzo chases him, running into Pissani, who punches him in retaliation for "blowing a raspberry" at him.
The Maniac, now impersonating Malipiero, finds Pissani and his lackey, the Constable, in the room where the anarchist was during his interrogation. Telling them that he is Malipiero, the Maniac asks for the Superintendent, who was involved with the interrogation with Pissani and the Constable. The Maniac orders the three policemen to re-enact the events of the interrogation; in turn fabricating many of the events, such as changing beating the anarchist to making jokes with him, incorporating new lines into the transcript and even breaking out in song. When the investigation reaches the matter of the fall, the Constable reveals he grabbed the anarchist's shoe, in an attempt to stop him from falling. However, the Maniac notes that witnesses reported that the anarchist had both shoes on. When Pissani surmises that the anarchist was wearing a galosh, the Superintendent breaks into a rage, making Pissani accidentally reveal that the Superintendent pushed the anarchist out of the window. The two policemen then realise that the Maniac was listening. The phone in the office suddenly rings, which Pissani answers. He tells them that it is a journalist called Maria Feletti, whom the Superintendent agreed to meet to clear rumors about the interrogation, wanting to come up to the office.
As the presence of Judge Malipiero would endanger them, the policemen tell the Maniac to leave for the time being. Instead, the Maniac intends to disguise himself as a forensic expert from Rome, Captain Piccini. The Maniac leaves the office. Feletti nearly exposes the three policemen, until the Maniac re-enters, as an extravagantly-dressed amputee. The Maniac manages to concoct a story on how the anarchist died: one of the impatient policemen hit the anarchist in the neck, an ambulance being called; the anarchist then being led to the window for fresh air, and pushed accidentally out of the window due to uncoordinated balance between the two policemen leading him to the window. Feletti is unconvinced, noting how the death of the anarchist was reported by the police to be a suicide, opposed to their original comment that it was "accidental". Bertozzo suddenly enters, delivering a replica of a bomb from another attack. Bertozzo partially recognises the Maniac, as he knows Captain Piccini, but is dissuaded by Pissani and the Superintendent. Feletti begins to pick out the inconsistencies in the policemen's stories, and showing that bombers in Milan are fascists, not revolutionaries.
Bertozzo realises that "Piccini" is the Maniac, after seeing his coat and hat on a stand. Bertozzo, holding the policemen at gunpoint, orders Feletti to cuff the three policemen; getting the Maniac to show them his medical records, exposing him as a fraud. The Maniac reveals a tape recorder, which he used to record Pissani and the Superintendent's tirade, exposing their crime. The Maniac strips off his disguise, making him recognizable to Feletti, who identifies him as Paulo Davidovitch Gandolpho, the "Prose Pimpernel of the Permanent Revolution" and "notorious sports editor of Lotta Continua". Revealing that the bomb replica can in fact work, setting it off on a timer, the Maniac has Bertozzo join his fellow policemen. Feletti attempts to stop the Maniac, citing the Maniac as an "extremist" and "fanatic". The Maniac, instead of killing her, offers her an ultimatum: save the four corrupt policemen, acquitting them and the Maniac will be put behind bars; or leave them to die for their crime and unwittingly join the extremist movement as an accomplice. The Maniac then leaves to spread the recording.
The Maniac then addresses the audience, showing what the scenario entails. When Feletti leaves them, the four policemen die in the resulting explosion. However, the Maniac then offers the second result: sticking to the rule of law, Feletti releases them, but is chained to the window by the policemen when they realize that Feletti knows what they did. The Maniac then leaves the audience to decide which ending they prefer.
Adaptations and legacy
A Hindi adaptation of the play, Bechara Mara Gaya,[2] was made into a film.[3] Another earlier adaptation, Dhool Me Lipta Sach, ran in Pune.[4] A Chinese adaptation with some changes to the original script was directed by Meng Jinghui.[5]
Ed Emery was the translator for an authorised English-language version of the play.[6] In 1979, Gavin Richards of the socialist political theatre group Belt and Braces developed an adaptation that was staged at London's Wyndham's Theatre with both Richards and Alfred Molina alternating in the lead role of "The Maniac", for which Richards was nominated for an Olivier Award. A TV movie of the play, with the Belt and Braces cast and Richards once more in the lead, was commissioned by Channel 4 in 1983 and broadcast the subsequent year.[7][8]
An English adaptation by Wild Rice, Singapore under the leadership of Ivan Heng, co-directed by Jo Kukathas and Glen Goei starring Ghafir Akbar was premiered on 28th September 2024 in Singapore, two preview shows scheduled for 26th and 27th September 2024 were cancelled as the script had not received the requisite approvals.
Dario Luigi Angelo Fo was an Italian playwright, actor, theatre director, stage designer, songwriter, political campaigner for the Italian left wing and the recipient of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Literature. In his time he was "arguably the most widely performed contemporary playwright in world theatre". Much of his dramatic work depends on improvisation and comprises the recovery of "illegitimate" forms of theatre, such as those performed by giullari and, more famously, the ancient Italian style of commedia dell'arte.
Timothy Supple is a British born, award-winning international theatre director. He is the son of the academic Barry Supple.
Adriano Sofri is an Italian former far-left politician, a journalist and a writer. He was convicted for ordering the assassination of Milan Police officer Luigi Calabresi in 1972. This was one of the most important murders during the historical period of social turmoil and political violence in Italy known as the "Years of Lead". Spanning from the late 1960s until the late 1980s, they were marked by a wave of both far-left and far-right incidents of political terrorism.
Giuseppe "Pino" Pinelli was an Italian railroad worker and anarchist, who died while being detained by the Polizia di Stato in 1969. Pinelli was a member of the Milan-based anarchist association named Ponte della Ghisolfa. He was also the secretary of the Italian branch of the Anarchist Black Cross. His death, believed by many to have been caused by members of the police, inspired Nobel Prize laureate Dario Fo to write his famous play titled Accidental Death of an Anarchist.
Simon Nye is an English screenwriter, best known for television comedy. He wrote the hit sitcom Men Behaving Badly, and all of the four ITV Pantos. He co-wrote the 2006 film Flushed Away, created an adaptation of Richmal Crompton's Just William books in 2010, and wrote the drama series The Durrells.
Gavin Richards is an English actor, writer and director. He is best known for playing Captain Alberto Bertorelli in the BBC sitcom 'Allo 'Allo! from 1987 to 1989 and Terry Raymond in the BBC soap opera EastEnders between 1996 and 2002.
Richard Hope is a British actor who gained recognition from Brideshead Revisited as the doltish junior officer, Hooper, under Jeremy Irons' charge. He is best known for playing Harris Pascoe in the UK TV drama Poldark. His theatre career includes portraying Pierre Bezukhov in War and Peace at the Royal National Theatre and having starred as Levin in an adaptation of Anna Karenina by Helen Edmundson. In 2015, he played Hector in The History Boys. In 2018–2019, he starred in the West End production The Woman in Black as Arthur Kipps.
Piyush Mishra is an Indian actor, singer, lyricist, playwright, musician, and screenwriter. Mishra grew up in Sambhal, and graduated from National School of Drama, Delhi in 1986. Thereafter, he started his career in Hindi theatre in Delhi. Over the next decade, he established himself as a theatre director, actor, lyricist and singer. He moved to Mumbai in 2002, receiving acclaim for his acting in Maqbool (2003) and Gangs of Wasseypur (2012).
Mel Shapiro is an American theatre director and writer, college professor, and author.
John Lovell Horsley was a British actor.
Seema Azmi is an Indian film and theatre actress.
Luigi Calabresi was an Italian Polizia di Stato officer in Milan. Responsible for investigating far-left political movements, Calabresi was assassinated in 1972 by members of Lotta Continua, who blamed him for the death of anarchist activist Giuseppe Pinelli in police custody in 1969. The deaths of Pinelli and Calabresi were significant events during the Years of Lead, a period of major political violence and unrest in Italy from the 1960s to the 1980s.
Manu Rishi Chadha is an Indian actor, lyricist, script and dialogue writer who works in Hindi films. Rishi is trained under theatre director Arvind Gaur for six years. He won the Filmfare Best Dialogue Award in 2009 for Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! He also won the IIFA Best Dialogue Award for Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!.
L'Hôtel du Libre échange is a comedy written by the French playwrights Georges Feydeau and Maurice Desvallières in 1894. The play takes place in Paris in the 19th century, and follows two Parisian households and their friends over the course of two days. The play has three acts; acts one and three take place in Monsieur Pinglet's office, while act two takes place in Hôtel du Libre échange, a small Paris hotel. The play has been translated into several other languages.
Gavin Muir, was a British actor and musician probably best known for his role in the 1983 Television version of Accidental Death of an Anarchist.
Daniel Rigby is an English actor and comedian. He received a BAFTA TV Award for his leading role as Eric Morecambe in the 2011 BBC television film Eric and Ernie.
Deborah McAndrew is a British playwright and actor, known for playing Angie Freeman in Coronation Street in the 1990s. She is also co-founder and Creative Director of the Stoke-on-Trent-based Claybody Theatre Company, and a visiting lecturer in the Department of Drama and Theatre Arts at Staffordshire University.
Susie Youssef is an Australian writer, actor and comedian who works in television, on radio and stage. She is best known for her appearances in the television series The Project, Whose Line Is It Anyway? Australia, and Rosehaven, and has performed stand-up comedy at various Australian and international festivals.
Lazarus “Jerome” Averbuch (1889–1908) was a 19-year-old Russian-born Jewish immigrant to Chicago who was shot and killed by Chicago Chief of Police George M. Shippy on March 2, 1908. The incident occurred during an era of public fear of foreign-born anarchists in the United States, following their involvement with the Haymarket affair in 1886. The exact circumstances of the shooting remain contested, but Averbuch's death has inspired speculation, ideological arguments, and works of fiction.
The 1997 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the Italian playwright and actor Dario Fo (1926–2016) "who emulates the jesters of the Middle Ages in scourging authority and upholding the dignity of the downtrodden." Fo became the sixth Italian to be selected for the award since Eugenio Montale in 1975 and the first Italian playwright to be chosen since Luigi Pirandello in 1934.
Maher, Brigid (2011). "Playing for Laughs: Satire, Farce and Tragedy in Dario Fo". Recreation and Style: Translating Humorous Literature in Italian and English. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing. pp.51–76. ISBN978-90-272-2438-5.
Niccolai, Marta (2017) [1970]. "Domestication as a political act: The case of Gavin Richards's translation of Dario Fo's Accidental Death of an Anarchist". In Brodie, Geraldine; Cole, Emma (eds.). Adapting Translation for the Stage. London: Routledge. pp.173–185. ISBN978-1-315-43680-7.
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