KTS Anarchist 2011.indd - The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey

The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey
Know-the-Show
Support Materials
compiled and arranged by
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The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey
TIMOn OF AtHEns: Know-the-Show Guide — 1
The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey
TIMOn OF AtHEns: Know-the-Show Guide — 2
In This Guide:
Director’s Notes........................................................................................p1
Accidental Death of an Anarchist: A Synopsis..........................................p2
Who’s Who in the Play.............................................................................p3
About the Playwright................................................................................p4
About the Translator................................................................................p5
In His Own Words: From Fo’s 1997 Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech......................p5
Fo’s Call to Action.....................................................................................p7
Further Reading........................................................................................p7
Commedia Dell’Arte..................................................................................p8
Commentary and Criticism.......................................................................p9
About The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey..........................back cover
The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey
ACCIDENTAL DEATH TIMOn
OF AN ANARCHIST:
OF AtHEns: Know-the-Show Guide
DIRECTOR’S NOTES: Accidental Death of an Anarchist
Dario Fo is an internationally acclaimed playwright, director, actor and composer. Born in 1926 in the village of Sangiano,
in Lombardy, Italy, his upbringing would greatly influence his life and his career. His grandfather told stories to attract
customers to his produce cart. Fo’s father, a fervent socialist, held a job as a railway station worker but, in his free time,
was an amateur actor. Fo’s mother wrote an autobiographical account of her childhood. The necessity of storytelling and
performance was ingrained in Dario’s bloodline.
In 1997, after receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature, he spoke about the people in his childhood community and how
they affected his art: “They were the old storytellers, the master glass blowers, who taught me and other children the
craftsmanship, the art, of spinning fantastic yarns. We would listen to them, bursting with laughter - laughter that would
stick in our throats as the tragic allusion that surmounted each sarcasm would dawn on us.”
Alongside art, politics shared an integral role in Fo’s development. During WWII, his family smuggled refugees, allied
soldiers, and Jewish scientists into Switzerland. Toward the end of WWII, while attending college, Dario was conscripted to
Mussolini’s army but refused to fight, opting instead to hide in an attic until the war was over.
Initially studying to be an architect, Fo made his acting debut in Milan in 1952 and began writing satirical cabarets. In
1954, he married Franca Rame, who was also from a theatrical family, and in 1959, they started their own theatre: FoRame Theatre Company. Fo would write, direct, design, and compose the shows while Rame would frequently star. This is
where Fo’s career in the theatre took flight.
To this date, Dario Fo has written over 70 plays. Due to its pointed and satirical nature, his work is commonly censored by
authority, both religious and political. But his understanding of the power of storytelling and his commitment to the plight
of common man earned him the adoration of the public. Though he has been banned, threatened, rioted against, and
arrested on behalf of his art, his plays continue to be performed in over 40 countries.
“Comedy is a form of madness” – Dario Fo
Accidental Death of an Anarchist takes place in Milan, Italy in 1970. In the 1960s, Italian labor unions gained significant
strength, forcing the government to overprint money in order to pay wages, thereby causing run-away inflation.
Toward the end of 1960s, unions began to strike, calling for better pay and working conditions. The youth
of Italy piggy-backed this cause and began protesting against their professors, the church,
and the communist party. Many of these strikes and protests were met with
violent retribution from the police. This period of time was known as
“Hot Autumn.” Capitalizing on “Hot Autumn” were the neo-fascist
groups, many of whom were backed and armed by the police.
They began performing acts of terrorism in order to undermine the
protests and strengthen the right-wing party.
Giuseppe Pinelli was a 41-year-old railway worker and anarchist. On
December 12th, 1969, a bomb went off at the Milan Bank of Agriculture.
Pinelli was arrested, interrogated and kept in custody for three days. On
December 15th, he fell to his death from the fourth floor of the police
building. Fo wrote Accidental Death... in reaction to these events. Most
of the information in the play is a dramatic reworking of the findings of the
investigative journalists.
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The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey
ACCIDENTAL DEATH OF AN ANARCHIST: Know-the-Show Guide
Accidental Death of an Anarchist: A Synopsis
TIME AND PLACE: A police station in Milan, Italy. 1970.
prompts them
to re-enact
Early in the play, the
the anarchist’s
Maniac refers to himself
interrogation.
According to
as a “histromaniac.”
the two men,
‘What is that?’ you
the interview
are probably asking,
concluded
especially since it is a
with the
wholly made-up word.
anarchist being
seized by a
Here’s it’s origin:
“raptus,” which
culminated
his·tri·on·ic [HISS-tree-on-ik]
in his sudden
adj. 1. of or pertaining to actors or
suicidal leap
acting.
out of the
2. deliberately affected or
window. With
self-consciously emotional;
overly dramatic, in behavior
encouragement
or speech.
from the
n.
3.
an actor.
Maniac, the
Superintendent
and the
-from the Late Latin histriōnicus
for “a player,” from histriō
Inspector
meaning “actor.”
reveal that the
“anarchist”
was actually an
innocent man
they had randomly arrested, to whom they told several lies to
in order to get him to “confess.” In addition, they disclose that
they fabricated information to give to the media about the
anarchist and his death.
In a second story office, Inspector Bertozzo interrogates a man
(referred to as “the Maniac” by the playwright). With a record
of impersonating dozens of people, the Maniac is currently
accused of impersonating a psychologist and charging his
patients astronomical fees. The Maniac wittily defends himself,
claiming that he studied psychology by living in a mental
institution and can therefore rightly call himself a psychologist.
When Bertozzo threatens the Maniac, the Maniac reminds the
inspector of what the repercussions of harming him would be
–all of which he apparently learned from a lawyer at the mental
institution.
The Maniac’s sharp wit leads Bertozzo to call into question
the man’s claims of insanity. Frustrated, the inspector
encourages the Maniac to give him his statement so that he
can be released. Horrified, the Maniac begs Bertozzo to keep
him at the police station, saying that he would sooner jump
out of a window than brave the danger of the streets. As the
Maniac attempts to jump out the window, the inspector and
the constable chase him around the room to prevent him from
killing himself. Finally Bertozzo forces the Maniac to leave, and
then rushes off to a meeting.
The Maniac sneaks back into the empty room and begins
rifling through the inspector’s files. As he is about to destroy
the records of his charges, he discovers a file that refers to the
sudden death of a man (an accused anarchist) while in the
process of being interrogated at the police station. The phone
rings. The Maniac answers it and begins speaking with a police
inspector from the fourth floor. The man on the other end of
the phone warns the Maniac (who pretends to be a man named
Anghiari) that a High Court Judge has been sent up from Rome.
The Maniac speculates that the judge has been specifically sent
to deal with the mysterious death of the anarchist. Following
the barrage of insults he hurls at the fourth-floor inspector, the
Maniac decides to impersonate the High Court Judge. Inspector
Bertozzo re-enters the office as the Maniac disguises himself,
causing some confusion.
The Maniac (still disguised as the Judge) tells the two that the
government is furious with them, and that they will be heavily
punished. Then, in an act likely reminiscent of the true events
of the anarchist’s interrogation, the Maniac tries to force the
Superintendant and the inspector to jump out the window.
At that moment, the constable walks into the office. As the
shamed officers try to regain their composure, the Maniac
tells the constable that the men were merely experiencing a
“raptus.” He then gives them a taste of their own medicine, by
telling them that what he said before was a lie: the government
is, in fact, delighted with them.
The Maniac then goes to the fourth floor and waits for the
inspector (identified as the Inspector in the Sports Coat) with
whom he had just spoken on the phone. After thoroughly
aggravating the man, the Maniac identifies himself as the judge
from the High Court, calls for the Superintendent, and begins
questioning the two men about the death of the anarchist. He
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!------------------------------With further cunning, the Maniac prods the men to confess that
they rewrote the report of the anarchist’s fall from the window
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The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey
ACCIDENTAL DEATH OF AN ANARCHIST: Know-the-Show Guide
SPOILER ALERT!!
fascists rather than anarchists. Moreover, the fascists were
aided and abetted by the police in order to put blame on the
leftist groups. The Maniac confirms her suspicions that the
anarchist was an innocent pawn in the police system’s corrupt
plan to cover up their past wrongdoings.
to make themselves seem innocent of his death. He then
further mocks the men by collaborating with them to write an
even more outrageous rewrite of the report that makes the men
seem even less guilty of the man’s death.
After continuous mocking that goes over the heads of the
Inspector and the Superintendent, a journalist, Maria Feletti,
arrives to interview the Superintendent. In order to quell the
men’s fear that the High Court Judge’s visit will leak to the press,
the Maniac removes his disguise and impersonates Captain
Piccinni. The reporter’s superior intelligence and wealth of
facts soon has the Superintendent and the Inspector once again
scrambling to cover up their guilt. The Maniac pretends to aid
them in their feeble defense.
The Inspectors and the Superintendent are baffled by the
Maniac’s eagerness to uncover their corruption, but just as
Bertozzo is about to expose the Maniac as an infamous identitythief, the journalist reveals that she has known all along that
he is in fact the Bishop. Revealing his clerical garb, the Maniac
explains that, as Bishop, he is responsible for Vatican relations
with the Italian police. As the Maniac is ironically convincing
the journalist that scandal is a truly good thing, Bertozzo pulls
a gun on him, and has the constable handcuff everyone to the
wall so that they will stay and listen to the Maniac’s confession
of his true identity. The Maniac indeed confesses, and then
reveals his final secret: he has recorded the entire event and will
distribute the evidence of the police department’s corruption to
every newspaper in the country.
Inspector Bertozzo enters the office, almost blowing the
Maniac’s cover. He claims to have a replica of a bomb, planted
by a left-wing political group, that went off at the bank on
the same day that the anarchist had been arrested and taken
to police headquarters. The reporter sees clearly that the
bombing—one among over a hundred—was carried out by
Who’s Who in the Play:
The Maniac—a wily histromanaic, bent on exposing
political corruption.
The First Constable—a blundering police officer whose
greatest skill is following unreasonable orders.
Inspector Bertozzo—an irritable officer who fears that
the press will discover the wrongdoings at police
headquarters.
The Superintendent—the chief officer at the police
station whose goal is to cover up his mistakes and the
corruption of the system.
Edmond Genest (The Superintendent),
Philip Goodwin (Inspector Bertozzo),
Jeffrey M. Bender (Constable Pisani), and
Andrew Weems (The Inspector in the Sports Coat)
in Accidental Death of an Anarchist.
Photo: Gerry Goodstein, ©2011.
The Inspector in the Sports Coat—the subordinate of the
superintendent, who is also intent on creating lies to prove
his innocence.
Maria Feletti—an aggressive reporter who is the first of many to
learn of the corruption as exposed by the Maniac.
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The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey
ACCIDENTAL DEATH OF AN ANARCHIST: Know-the-Show Guide
About the Playwright
Dario Fo was born on March 24, 1926, in Lombardy, Italy. In
In 1968, Fo
his early life, he moved to Milan to study art and architecture.
and Rame
Towards the end of WWII, Fo was conscripted into the army of
disbanded
the Salo Republic. He managed to escape enlisting by hiding in
their company
an attic, and, after the war, he returned to his studies.
in order
to form
In 1950, Fo enthralled listeners with a series of “poer nano”
Associazione
(“poor little thing”) monologues of his own creation—usually
Nuova
comic re-interpretations of Biblical or otherwise classical stories.
Scena, an
While working with the Nava-Parenti company in Milan, Fo met
independent
his future wife and partner, Franca Rame—a life-long performer
theatre
who had been born to a family of travelling actors and
collective that
puppeteers. Fo and Rame were married in 1954 and became
used portable
each other’s greatest collaborators.
stages to
entertain the working class in non-traditional theatre spaces,
such as community halls, sports venues, and public plazas.
In the late 1950s, Fo and Rame established the Fo-Rame
Company. Based in Milan, Fo wrote and performed in many
farces for the company, while Rame performed and acted as
In 1969, Dario Fo staged “Mistero Buffo,” which became an
primary administrator. In 1962, Fo-Rame wrote for a national TV
enormous success that ran for more than 5,000 performances.
series (“Canzonissima”), and sparked tremendous controversy
Fo and Rame eventually left Nuova Scena due to political
through their attention to the working class and his satirization
differences with the company, and began the Collettivo Teatrale
of corrupt or ineffectual authorities. The couple received death
La Comune. It was during this period that Fo wrote Accidental
threats and massive cuts to their scripts from the censors at the
Death of An Anarchist. He was inspired by the frenzy following
Italian National Television (RAI). Fo and Rame quit the show in
a terrorist attack on the Banca Nazionale dell’Agricoltura in
protest of the censorship. And while the Italian Actors Union
Milan, in which a man—labeled by the Italian media as “an
(SAI) showed them support, Fo and Rame were still sued.
anarchist”—died after falling or being thrown out of a police
precinct window.
Throughout the mid-1960s, Fo and Rame wrote and performed
many plays that were highly critical of corruption in the Italian
Throughout the 1970s, Fo-Rame was met with resistance,
government and scrutinized the dogmatic aspects of Italian
censorship, and violence for their political messages. Despite
society. These plays incited violence from Fascist groups,
this opposition, the couple continued to write, stage, and
resulting in threats and an attempted assault on Fo and Rame.
perform plays well into the 1990s. In 1997, Dario Fo was
The Italian Communist Party provided Fo and Rame with guards.
awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. In 2006, Fo took an
While Rame was a member of the Italian Communist Party, Fo
active role in the political systems he so frequently criticized by
was extremely critical of the organization. Eventually Rame
running for mayor of Milan, the most economically important
gave back her party member card and broke from the Italian
city of Italy. He finished second with over 20% of the votes.
Communist Party completely.
As of 2010, both Fo and Rame were independent members
of the Communist Refoundation Party (PRC – Partito della
Rifondazione Comunista), and Fo remains an active participant
and campaigner on various political, social and cultural issues.
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The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey
ACCIDENTAL DEATH OF AN ANARCHIST: Know-the-Show Guide
In His Own Words: An excerpt from Dario Fo’s Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech
…I mustn’t forget those of the small town on Lago Maggiore
where I was born and raised, a town with a rich oral tradition.
They were the old storytellers, the master glass blowers who
taught me and other children the craftsmanship, the art, of
spinning fantastic yarns. We would listen to them, bursting with
laughter—laughter that would stick in our throats as the tragic
allusion that surmounted each sarcasm would dawn on us. To
this day I keep fresh in my mind the story of the Rock of Caldé.
“The great splinter of rock was about to sink into the lake.
‘Watch out, you’ve got water up to your ankles’, shouted the
people along the shore. ‘Nonsense, that’s just drainage water
from the fountains, it’s just a bit humid,’ said the people of the
town, and so, slowly but surely, the whole town was swallowed
by the lake…
“Even today”, continued the old glass blower, “if you look down
into the water from that outcrop that still juts out from the lake,
and if in that same moment a thunderstorm breaks out, and the
lightning illuminates the bottom of the lake, you can still see incredible as it may seem! - the submerged town, with its streets
still intact and even the inhabitants themselves, walking around
and glibly repeating to themselves: ‘Nothing has happened’. The
fish swim back and forth before their eyes, even into their ears.
But they just brush them off: ‘Nothing to worry about. It’s just
some kind of fish that’s learned to swim in the air’…
“Many years ago”, began the old glass blower, “way up on
the crest of that steep cliff that rises from the lake there was
a town called Caldé. As it happened, this town was sitting on
a loose splinter of rock that slowly, day by day, was sliding
down towards the precipice. It was a splendid little town, with
a campanile, a fortified tower at the very peak and a cluster of
houses, one after the other. It’s a town that once was and that
now is gone. It disappeared in the 15th Century.
“‘Hey’, shouted the peasants and fishermen down in the valley
below. ‘You’re sliding, you’ll fall down from there’.
Disturbing though it may be, there’s no denying that a tale
like this still has something to tell us. I repeat, I owe much to
these master glass blowers of mine, and they - I assure you are immensely grateful to you, members of this Academy, for
rewarding one of their disciples…
“But the cliff dwellers wouldn’t listen to them, they even laughed
and made fun of them: ‘You think you’re pretty smart, trying to
scare us into running away from our houses and our land so you
can grab them instead. But we’re not that stupid.’
“So they continued to prune their vines, sow their
fields, marry and make love. They went to mass.
They felt the rock slide under their houses but they
didn’t think much about it. ‘Just the rock settling.
Quite normal’, they said, reassuring each other.
Above all others, this evening you’re due the loud and solemn
thanks of an extraordinary master of the stage, little-known not
“Laughter does not please
the mighty.”
-Dario Fo, 1997
Ed Emery (Translator) studied Greek and Latin at
Cambridge University, where he also served as the president of
the University’s Student Union. Very politically active, Emery
staged numerous protests on various issues, ranging from his
opposition to the University’s exam system to his support of
Irish and Chilean political prisoners.
including Manuel Vázquez Montalbán’s An Olympic Death,
Mehdi Charef’s Tea in the Harem, and Antonio Negri’s Empire
and Beyond. He has also contributed to the circulation of the
work of the Greek scholar Elias Petropoulos, whose work was
considered too controversial to be acknowledged in Greek
academia.
Emery’s work as a political activist and a translator has figured
significantly in the current circulation of Italian New Left ideas
in England. A series called Red Letters is comprised of Emery’s
translations of Italian reformulations of Marxist theory. Emery
has translated several works of Italian literature into English,
Currently, Emery is translating the rest of Dario Fo’s plays into
English. When translating Accidental Death of an Anarchist,
Emery chose to stay as close to the original text as possible by
keeping all of the original cultural, popular and wholly Italian
references in the play.
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The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey
ACCIDENTAL DEATH OF AN ANARCHIST: Know-the-Show Guide
These encounters have strengthened us in our conviction that
our job is - in keeping with the exhortation of the great Italian
poet Savinio - “to tell our own story”. Our task as intellectuals,
as persons who mount the pulpit or the stage, and who, most
importantly, address young people, our task is not just to
teach them method, like how to use the arms, how to control
breathing, how to use the stomach, the voice, the falsetto, the
contracampo. It’s not enough to teach a technique or a style:
we have to show them what is happening around us. They have
to be able to tell their own story. A theatre, a literature, an
artistic expression that does not speak for its own time has no
relevance.
only to you and to people in France, Norway, Finland . . . but also
to the people of Italy. Yet he was, until Shakespeare, doubtless
the greatest playwright of renaissance Europe. I’m referring to
Ruzzante Beolco, my greatest master along with Molière: both
actors-playwrights, both mocked by the leading men of letters
of their times. Above all, they were despised for bringing onto
the stage the everyday life, joys and desperation of the common
people; the hypocrisy and the arrogance of the high and mighty;
and the incessant injustice. And their major, unforgivable
fault was this: in telling these things, they made people laugh.
Laughter does not please the mighty…
A few days ago, a young actor of great talent said to me:
“Maestro, you should try to project your energy, your
enthusiasm, to young people. You have to give them this charge
of yours. You have to share your professional knowledge and
experience with them”. Franca - that’s my wife - and I looked
at each other and said: “He’s right”. But when we teach others
our art, and share this charge of fantasy, what end will it serve?
Where will it lead? In the past couple of months, Franca and I
have visited a number of university campuses to hold workshops
and seminars before young audiences. It has been surprising—
not to say disturbing—to discover their ignorance about the
times we live in… But this absent-mindedness on the part of the
young has been conferred upon them by those who are charged
to educate and inform them: among the absent-minded and
uninformed, school teachers and other educators deserve first
mention…
Recently I took part in a large conference with lots of people
where I tried to explain, especially to the younger participants,
the ins and outs of a particular Italian court case. The original
case resulted in seven separate proceedings, at the end of
which three Italian left-wing politicians were sentenced to 21
years of imprisonment each, accused of having murdered a
police commissioner. I’ve studied the documents of the case - as
I did when I prepared Accidental Death of an Anarchist - and
at the conference I recounted the facts pertaining to it, which
are really quite absurd, even farcical. But at a certain point
I realized I was speaking to deaf ears, for the simple reason
that my audience was ignorant not only of the case itself, but
of what had happened five years earlier, ten years earlier: the
violence, the terrorism. They knew nothing about the massacres
that occurred in Italy, the trains that blew up, the bombs in the
piazze, or the farcical court cases that have dragged on since
then. The terribly difficult thing is that in order to talk about
what is happening today, I have to start with what happened
thirty years ago and then work my way forward. It’s not enough
to speak about the present. And pay attention, this isn’t just
about Italy: the same thing happens everywhere, all over
Europe. I’ve tried in Spain and encountered the same difficulty;
I’ve tried in France, in Germany, I’ve yet to try in Sweden, but I
will.
Dario Fo receiving his Nobel Prize from the hands of His Majesty King Carl XVI Gustaf
of Sweden at the Stockholm Concert Hall, 10 December 1997.
Copyright © Pica Pressfoto AB 1997, S-105 17 Stockholm, Sweden, telephone: +46-8-13 52 40
Photo: Anders Wiklund
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The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey
ACCIDENTAL DEATH OF AN ANARCHIST: Know-the-Show Guide
Fo’s Call to Action
advocated an ideology that he believed would bring peace to
his country. A central figure in the Milanese anarchist circle,
Pinelli coordinated youth organizations, ran the library for the
Anarcho-Syndichalist Union, and created a support network for
the anarchists who had been falsely accused of bombings across
Milan.
Accidental Death of an Anarchist is based on true events
surrounding political corruption in Italy from the 1960s through
the 1980s. Though the underlying story of the play may seem
too absurd to be true, it is, in fact, closely based on the official
documents and investigative journalism about a case involving
the death of a man named Giuseppe Pinelli. Pinelli was accused
of a deadly bombing and arrested. Muddled records and official
revisions of events obscured the fact that Pinelli was thrown
from the window of the police station, and moreover, that his
arrest was a cover-up for the fact that the government itself was
responsible for the bombing.
On December 12, 1969, 15 people were killed and 58 wounded
when a bomb went off at a bank in Milan. The incident became
known as the Piazza Fontana Bombing. Guiseppi Pinelli was
among several people arrested on suspicion of plotting the
attack. On the night of his arrest, he was found dead outside
of the window of the police station. The official documents
regarding his death called it a suicide, another an “accidental
death.” But forensic evidence showed that Pinelli’s fall was
anything but a suicide. The remaining suspects were acquitted
in 1985, with authorities unable to find them guilty.
As the working class of Italy became more active about their
discontent with the political and economic climate in the
1960s, the government began to fear that its authority would
be undermined. With change happening all across Europe and
America, the Italian government feared that the country was on
the brink of a Socialist revolution. Their solution was to sanction
terrorist attacks by an extreme right-wing group that was
disguised as part of a communist insurgency. Their hope was to
create a climate of tension that would cause citizens to create a
right-wing coup in favor of the government. This tactic became
known as the “Strategy of Tension.” From 1969 to 1984, the
government carried out 4,298 acts of terrorism. Police suspicion
fell on neofacists and anarchists, among them, Guiseppi Pinelli.
Fo was not the only person to take action against this
corruption. A newspaper run by the far-left published political
cartoons accusing the senior interrogating officer of Pinelli’s
death. The paper was accused of libel and was tried in 1970,
the same year that Fo opened Accidental Death of an Anarchist.
Dario Fo and Franca Rame continued to be attacked for
speaking out against injustice. Though the “Strategy of Tension”
ended in 1984, Fo’s Accidental Death of an Anarchist remains
a shockingly relevant play, warning against corruption and
injustice in all societies.
Guiseppi Pinelli was a 41 year old railway worker with a wife
and two daughters. Pinelli had become interested in anarchism
in his teens, serving as a courier for an anarchist group in
Milan. He and his wife met at Esperanto classes. Both believed
that a universal language would be the gateway to peace all
across Europe. Pinelli did not advocate violence. Instead, he
Further Reading
Caesar, Michael, and Peter Hainsworth. Writers and Society in
Contemporary Italy: a Collection of Essays. Leamington Spa: Berg Publ.,
1984. Print.
Hirst, David. Dario Fo and Franca Rame. New York: St. Martin’s, 1989.
Print.
McManus, Donald. No Kidding!: Clown as Protagonist in Twentiethcentury Theater. Newark: University of Delaware, 2003. Print.
“Commedia Dell’Arte.” Humanracetheatre.org. Web. <http://www.
humanracetheatre.org/commedia_dell’arte_AUG_7_SCREEN.pdf>.
“The Nobel Prize in Literature 1997 Dario Fo.” Nobelprize.org. Web. 02
Aug. 2011. <http://nobelprize.org>.
Cowan, Suzanne. “The Throw-Away Theatre of Dario Fo.” The Drama
Review: TDR 19.2 (1975): 102-13. Print.
Domenico, Maceri. “Dario Fo: Jester of the Working Class,” World
Literature Today: A Literary Quarterly of the University of Oklahoma
72.1 (1998): 9-14.
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The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey
ACCIDENTAL DEATH OF AN ANARCHIST: Know-the-Show Guide
Commedia Dell’Arte
Dario Fo’s style of comedy was heavily influenced by Commedia
Dell’Arte, a form of improvisational comic theatre developed
in Italy, which flourished between 1545 and 1760. Commedia
troupes consisted of a company of traveling actors who were
skilled in improvisation and physical comedy. The troupe would
perform various scenarios, while wearing exaggerated masks
that represented the various “stock characters” which they
played. These included vecci (the old men), zanni (the zany
servants), and innamorati (the lovers). In these scenarios, the
old men often tried to keep the lovers apart, while the zany
servants devised schemes to allow the lovers to be together.
Echoes of Il vecci, which consisted of a miserly lecher
(Pantalone), a know-it-all professor (Il Dottore), and a bragging
but cowardly captain (Il Capitano), can be seen in the Constable,
the Superintendent, and the inspectors of Accidental Death of
an Anarchist.
In addition to utilizing stock characters, Commedia
performances incorporated numerous stock comic routines, or
lazzi. These bits could be woven into virtually any scenario, and
became a trademark of the Commedia style. Some examples of
lazzi include familiar routines such as a servant carrying a long
ladder into a room and striking everyone and everything with
it while remaining wholly unaware of the crisis, or a character
taking on numerous voices to confuse a blind-folded character,
or a doctor using exaggeratedly large medical instruments while
examining a patient. Many of these lazzi still appear in comic
Renderings of some of the stock Commedia characters: Il Dottore (the
Doctor), Pierrot (a servant), Harelquin or Arlecchino (the witty servant)
and Pantalone (the miserly old man).
entertainment today. In Accidental Death of an Anarchist, the
Maniac uses variations on several classic lazzi. He takes on the
voices and identities of many characters to rile up the inspector
as they speak on the phone. While in one of his various
disguises he incorporates fake limbs and even a false eye to
great comic effect.
Commedia was a highly popular and influential form of theater.
Though the troupes began in Italy, they traveled throughout
Europe, and influenced such playwrights as Ben Jonson, William
Shakespeare, and Jean Baptiste Molière. Commedia troupes
initially had very little money and performed on a small makeshift stage in public areas. As their popularity grew however,
wealthy patrons would sometimes provide them with a theatre
in which to perform. In France, Kings Louis XIV and Louis XV
greatly enjoyed the Commedia performances, despite the fact
that the troupes were banned from France for several years
after a troupe of actors mocked Louis XIV’s mistress.
Though Commedia Dell’Arte troupes dwindled in the 1760s, the
comedic style and stock characters of Commedia continue to be
influential. Commedia stock characters were notably assumed
by silent film actors such as Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton.
Even today, echoes of these stock characters can be seen in film,
television and even cartoons. Several theatre companies exist
today to bring this Italian art form to modern audiences. Dario
Fo used Commedia in a profound way; simultaneously satirizing
and cherishing his culture through elements of this essentially
Italian art form.
Maria Feletti (Kristie Dale Sanders) and the Maniac (Kevin
Isola) share a laugh at the expense of Inspector Bertozzo (Philip
Goodwin) in Accidental Death of an Anarchist.
Photo: Gerry Goodstein, ©2011.
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The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey
ACCIDENTAL DEATH OF AN ANARCHIST: Know-the-Show Guide
Commentary and Criticism
“Fo insists on the importance of the comicgrotesque element in theatre, both as part of
the patrimony of genuine popular culture and
as a basic tool for raising political consciousness.
Like Brecht, he was always fascinated by popular
theatre, incorporating all its comic-dramatic tricks
into his plays: double-takes, mistaken identities,
scurrilous language and behavior, mimicry,
characters hiding behind curtains and pieces of
furniture, blips and buffeting on the head and
kicks in the rear—the entire panoply of bellylaugh technique.
“[In Fo’s plays] There are no “characters”
in the psychological sense, only types or
Kevin Isola as the Maniac in Accidental Death of an Anarchist.
personifications—the mad man, policeman, politician,
Photo: Gerry Goodstein, ©2011.
union bureaucrat, worker, the bourgeoisie, and so
forth…Any character functions basically as a personification of a certain political problem, and as such can change
roles the moment his or her function changes on stage to articulate an issue different from one that was treated a few
minutes before.”
-Suzanne Cowan, “The Throw-Away Theatre of Dario Fo,” 1975
“Fo has always been the most sensitive barometer of the political climate in his country; a shrewd critic perfectly
attuned to the issues of the day... There is not a gag in the long final scene which is not there to underline a serious
point. The rhythm of the scene is calculated to control the audience response as they are jerked by comic dislocation
into a fuller awareness of serious issues.”
-David L. Hirst, Dario Fo and Franca Rame, 1989
“Whatever his antagonism toward intellectuals and litterateurs, there is no doubt that Fo too is an intellectual—though
one who, perhaps, has come to reflect more clearly than many the painful changes Italy has experienced…Whether as
the frivolous satirist of social behavior, or the ardent political provocateur, he is an eye-witness to the cultural, social
and political vicissitudes of his country...The success of Morte Accidentale (Accidental Death...) rests, I believe, on its
ability to put across a revolutionary message while still being irresistible as theatre.”
-Lino Pertile, “Dario Fo,” 1989
“Fo has never strayed too far from clown’s comic function, even when putting the laughter associated with clown to a
specific political end. He believes that clown is the stage character closest to the proletariat public he wants to reach…
He has used clown to approach modernist tragedy…Even in his broadest farces and most popular successes, such as
Accidental Death of an Anarchist, Fo continually reminds the audience of the tragic circumstances upon which the play
is based…Pinelli’s mangled body is never meant to be forgotten even through farcical episodes.”
-Donald McManus, No Kidding!: Clown as
Protagonist in Twentieth Century Theater, 2003
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ACCIDENTAL DEATH OF AN ANARCHIST: Know-the-Show Guide
About The Shakespeare Theatre
of New Jersey
The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey
The acclaimed Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey
is one of the leading Shakespeare theatres in the
nation. Serving more than 100,000 adults and young
people annually, it is New Jersey’s only professional
theatre company dedicated to Shakespeare’s canon
and other classic masterworks. With its distinguished
productions and education programs, the company
strives to illuminate the universal and lasting relevance
of the classics for contemporary audiences. The
longest-running Shakespeare theatre on the East Coast
and the seventh largest in the nation, The Shakespeare
Theatre of New Jersey marks its 49th season in 2011.
The company’s 2011 Main Stage season features six productions presented in its 308-seat F.M. Kirby Shakespeare Theatre and runs
June through December. In the summer, an Outdoor Stage production is also presented at the Greek Theatre, an open-air amphitheatre
nestled in a hillside on the campus of the College of Saint Elizabeth in nearby Morristown.
In addition to being a celebrated producer of classic plays and operating Shakespeare LIVE! (one of the largest educational Shakespeare
touring programs in the New York/New Jersey region), The Shakespeare Theatre is also deeply committed to nurturing new talent for
the American stage. By providing an outstanding training ground for students of the theatre, and cultivating audiences for the future
by providing extensive outreach opportunities for students across New Jersey and beyond, The Shakespeare Theatre is a leader in arts
education. For additional information, visit our website at www.ShakespeareNJ.org.
The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey is one of 20 professional theatres in the state of New Jersey. The company’s dedication to the
classics and commitment to excellence sets critical standards for the field. Nationwide, the Theatre has emerged as one of the most
exciting “new” theatres under the leadership of Artistic Director, Bonnie J. Monte since 1990. It is one of only a handful of Shakespeare
Theatres on the east coast, and in recent years has drawn larger and larger audiences and unprecedented critical acclaim. The opening
of the intimate, 308-seat F.M. Kirby Shakespeare Theatre in 1998, provided the Theatre with a state-of-the-art venue with excellent
sightlines, and increased access for patrons and artists with disabilities.
The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey is a member of ArtPride, The Shakespeare Theatre Association, Theatre Communications
Group, and is a founding member of the New Jersey Theatre Alliance.
The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey’s programs are made possible, in part, by funding from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State,
a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as funds from the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional major support is received from
The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, the F.M. Kirby Foundation, The Edward T. Cone Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, and Drew University,
as well as contributions from numerous corporations, foundations, government agencies and individuals.
The Shakespeare Theatre is an independent, professional theatre company located on the Drew University campus.