Accidental Death Of An Anarchist

Accidental Death of an Anarchist is a play written by Dario Fo in 1970. On the 12th of December 1969, a bomb exploded in the headquarters of the National Agrarian Bank in Piazza Fontana, Milan, Italy. The Bomb killed 17 people and injured 88. In the same afternoon 3 more bombs exploded and 1 was discovered unexploded. The police immediately announced that the terrorist attacks were caused by a group of anarchists and made 80 arrests including that of a local man, Guiseppe Pinelli...

The play was written in response to a trial that was on at the time, 3 policemen were being accused of murdering Guiseppe Pinelli. Pinelli was a railway worker (like Dario Fo's father) and was politically active in the anarchist movement. Three days after his arrest on the 15th of December 1969, he fell from a window on the fourth floor of the Milan Police station. The evidence of the incident appeared to make no sense and after a time the official verdict was that he had jumped from the window.

Many years later, it was discovered that the anarchists were not responsible and Pinelli was innocent od the crime. The group that was actually to blame were a neo-facist group called 'Ordine Nouvo' (Italian for new order). 

The play follows a characters called the Maniac who is secretly a reporter trying to find out what really happened to the anarchist who mysteriously 'fell out of a window accidentally'. As the plot plays out we see the truth more obviously that the police officers (mainly Pissani and the superintendent) pressured the railway worker to suicide through a series of lies they had no evidence for. They proceeded to attempt to cover this up with other versions of the story diverting the blame. We see just how uncoordinated the police department is and how stupid the officers are. A lot of the play is funny moments where the audience will laugh at the police officers stupidity however once the laughter subsides the audience is left to think about what they have watched and they realise the message Dario Fo wanted to create. He successfully portrayed the police incompetence through their stupid interactions. Furthermore, abuse of power is shown in the master servant relationship of the constable and Bertozzo. 

DARIO FO BOOK NOTES

Early in Fo's life, surrounded in politics - dad was a socialist railway worker - got accused of being a part of Mussolini's republican army - Joined a group called la continua - anti-capitalist group - Fabulatory were around him at young age -  were storytellers - spoke of myths of the lakes and seas - studied them, learnt every story and gesture they do and this created his early style - Throwaway theatre - no plan to preserve it - caused major discussions and disruption in many countries - provide info to the public through satire - where he lived, it had the highest percentage of insane people living there in all of Italy - Fo saw the Maniac as the modern day gesture - saw himself in the Maniac - telling truth using the medium of madness - influence - Georgio strehler - stories accessible to everyone