Ways into Dario Fo's Accidental Death of an Anarchist

Lucy Miller
Friday, December 18, 2020

Dario Fo's Accidental Death of an Anarchist is an A level set text for AQA, Eduqas and Edexcel. A political farce written in 1970, it takes as its subject the controversial events surrounding the 1969 Piazza Fontana bombing in Milan. An anarchist railway worker, Giuseppe Pinelli, ‘accidentally’ fell to his death from the fourth-floor of the police headquarters after being arrested as a suspect. Fo combines comedy with a sharp political message in order to highlight the absurdities of the case and communicate his broader socialist message.