Accidental Death of an Anarchist: review

Devious Theatre put on a run of Dario Fo’s ‘Accidental Death of an Anarchist’ this past weekend in Kilkenny’s new Set Theatre. It was my first time to be inside the Set Theatre so I was looking forward to seeing that as much as seeing the play. And I wasn’t disappointed with either one

The stage was small and intimate, the set an office environment which was the office of Inspector Bertozzo (played by John Morton) on the second floor of the police headquarters in Milan, Italy and later transformed into the office of Inspector Pisani (Alan Butler) in the same building on the fourth floor.

Written in 1970, Accidental Death Of An Anarchist was inspired by events that took place in Italy in 1969 when an anarchist, Giuseppe Pinelli fell – or was thrown – from the fourth floor window of a Milan police station. He had been accused of a campaign of bombing, of which he was later found innocent. The resultant scandal uncovered a system rife with corruption and intensified public rage at the government [...]

Accidental Death Of An Anarchist takes place as an enquiry into the anarchist’s death is causing the policemen involved to have some difficulties remembering the details of the event. That is, until a nameless deranged madman shows up and proceeds to tie the authorities around his fingers in a master class performance of utter logic.

The Madman mentioned is played by the wonderfully talented David Thompson. The Madman is, in fact, the most logical of them all, despite being insane. He is the most entertaining, the most fun, the most energetic of all the characters.

Accidental Death of An Anarchist is a political satire with comedy in bucket loads. I loved the physical comedy capers of the policemen as they tangled themselves up both literally and figuratively while the Madman led them by the nose down twisted turning paths of words, like simpletons. I loved the fact that while being hilariously funny, the play also mirrors society (thanks to the observations of the Madman) pointing out the inadequacies of government systems. In 1970, Dario Fo wrote about the inadequacies and inequalities of the Italian system at the time but the same problems still apply today in different ways. The Devious Theatre group very cleverly changed the original text to adapt to the current Irish situation, bringing in the Shell to Sea campaign, the rights of senior citizens, the controversy over the Brian Cowen nude picture hung in the National Gallery as examples of how the police and government are inextricably linked and always working together with Gardaí as puppets of the government.

This was an exciting, thought-provoking, comedic play with five talented actors - Simone Kelly playing Maria Feletti, the journalist, Sean Hackett playing the Constable, Alan Butler playing Inspector Pisani, Ken McGuire playing the Superintendent and last but absolutely by no means least, David Thompson playing the Madman. It was so exciting I can’t wait for the next one - Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay! will be staged in March 2010 by Devious Theatre hopefully again in the Set Theatre, a beautifully lavish, award-winning new theatre on John Street, Kilkenny.