Accidental Death of an Anarchist was first performed in 1970 in Italy and has been performed in 41 countries worldwide. Although recently reviewed as ‘riotous’ and ‘dazzlingly funny’, the play was based on a real-life tragedy. In 1969 Giuseppe Pinelli, an Italian railway worker died in police custody whilst being held on suspicion of being involved in a bombing. The police claimed that Pinelli committed suicide, throwing himself from the fourth floor in an act of guilt of his crime, although Fo and the public were dubious about this version of events. Accidental Death highlights the inconsistencies in the police's recollection of what happened; it is a political commentary on their spurious interrogation techniques. Through farce, Fo satirises the insidious nature of corruption.
Plot
In the Milan central police headquarters, the Superintendent and hapless Inspectors (Bertozzo and Pissani) await the arrival of a high court judge to investigate the anarchist's death. A mysterious character known as the ‘Maniac’ arrives, convincing them he is the judge. The Maniac coerces the police into reenacting the incident when the anarchist ‘fell’ from the window, revealing their lies. The Maniac (in various disguises) claims he wants to help them to be more convincing and conducts them in new versions of their story. Later on a reporter, Feletti arrives to question the officers. A replica bomb is produced by Bertozzo from a previous incident, the Maniac sets off the timer and offers the audience alternate endings: Either the policemen unlawfully die or Feletti acts lawfully and frees them, but pays a heavy price, chained to the window for knowing too much about their wrongdoing.
Style
As well as the actual people involved in Pinnelli's case, Fo drew on the traditions of clowning and the commedia dell'arte. This would be a good starting point for developing the play or scenes for performance. All those who appear in Accidental Death can be mapped against the stock characters of commedia; for instance, the Maniac (Arlecchino), Inspector Pizzani (Brighella) the Constable (Zanni). Beginning with a warm-up that gets students moving leading with body parts can help them engage with the acting style. For example, Arlecchino leading with his nose and turned-out feet. However, while the Maniac shares the mischievous traits of his commedia counterpart, his sole purpose in creating chaos is to reveal the truth, departing from the trickster's influence.
Fo's quick-fire dialogue and the physical nature of the play facilitates much of the comedy, but executing this requires a lot of actors and can be challenging for school students to grasp. Therefore, vocal and physical warm-ups such as tongue twisters and ‘the chair game’ (where one player makes their way across the space to an empty chair whilst others prevent them by switching seats), could help create a sense of fun, ensemble and pace required. In Act 2 the Maniac (as a judge) gets the police to ‘reconstruct the exact events’. To explore the absurdity, begin with the ‘excuses, excuses’ game where someone is ‘late’ and the class come up with an excuse, miming it together for the latecomer to guess. Continue to work off text getting students to physicalise various ways in which the ‘anarchist’ could have fallen from the window. The more ridiculous the better, as this will support discussion around the theme of duplicity and how to choreograph movement for comic effect on stage.
The social-political backdrop of the play is intensified by the breaking of the fourth wall. This is indicated in the text, for example during the Maniac's first appearance alone on stage, he engages the audience in on the joke as he tries out different personas. Get students to experiment with using direct address, Swale's (2016)Tea for Three could help here, before discussing why Fo might use this technique, and how this engages the audience in a debate.
Staging and props
The original production of Accidental Death was performed with a simple set and end-on stage, adding to the sense of spontaneous improvisation between the actors. The play does require multiple entrances and exits though; various English translations which include descriptions of the office set. Mapping these out either on paper or by making a shoe-box stage design could help with choreographing the farce. The Maniac also requires a variety of props, to create his disguises, although these should look makeshift to add to the feeling of chaos and emphasise the stupidity of the police.
Resources
- Accidental Death of an Anarchist (1984). Directed by G. Richards. London: Channel 4.
- Swale, J. (2016). Drama Games for Rehearsals. London: Nick Hern Books.