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A new translation of Fo's play which aims to be faithful to the clear-sighted insanity of the original. The author's other plays include "Mistero Buffo", "Trumpets and Raspberries" and "Archangels Don't Play Pinball".
Dario Fo's classic farce Accidental Death of an Anarchist was a sensation when it premiered in Italy in 1970. Based on the story of a political activist who ""fell"" to his death from the window of a police station, the original production was seen by over half a million people. This incisive satire on police corruption, media manipulation and political shenanigans is here translated by Simon Nye. This version of Accidental Death of an Anarchist premiered at the Donmar Warehouse, London in February 2003. ""A marvellous concept: a zany political farce..."" Michael Billington, Guardian""Fo's play absorbs social indignation into mainstream Italian comedy"" The Times
A satire on police corruption in Italy. Anarchist railway worker Giuseppe Pinelli was said to have jumped from a police headquarters window to his death - past seven policemen.
Fo's subversive drama is based on a true-life story: a prisoner falls from a window at police headquarters which triggers a chain of events exposing the judicial and police corruption of 1970s Italy.
A Study Guide for Dario Fo's "Accidental Death of an Anarchist," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Drama For Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Drama For Students for all of your research needs.
At 25, Jacob Marateck was a Jewish officer in the notoriously anti-Semitic Russian army during the Russo-Japanese War. After avoiding a firing squad for a third time, he escaped from a Siberian forced labor camp with Warsaw's colorful "King of Thieves." This is the remarkable, true story of an ordinary man made extraordinary by participating in the history-making events of the 1900s in Russia and Poland.
An irrepressible fraudster known only as the Maniac is brought into Police Headquarters just as the officers are preparing for a judicial review of the recent 'accidental' death of a suspect in custody. Outwitting his captors, the Maniac dupes them into performing a farcical recreation of the incident, exposing the absurd corruption and terrifying idiocy at the heart of the system. Dario Fo and Franca Rame's riotous satire has been widely performed around the world since its premiere in 1970. Tom Basden's acclaimed adaptation was first performed at Sheffield Theatres in 2022, directed by Daniel Raggett, and starring Daniel Rigby as the Maniac. The production transferred to the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre in 2023, before moving to the Theatre Royal Haymarket in London's West End.
It was a bitter cold morning in March, 1908. A nineteen-year-old Jewish immigrant traversed the confusing and unfamiliar streets of Chicago–a one-and-a-half-hour-long journey–from his ghetto home on Washburne Avenue to the luxurious Lincoln Place residence of Police Chief George Shippy. He arrived at 9 a.m. Within minutes after knocking on the front door, Lazarus Averbuch lay dead on the hallway floor, shot no less than six times by the chief himself. Why Averbuch went to the police chief's house or exactly what happened after that is still not known. This is the most comprehensive account ever written about this episode that stunned Chicago and won the attention of the entire country. It does not "solve" the mystery as much as it places it in the context of a nation that was unsure how to absorb all of the immigrants flowing across its borders. It attempts to reconstruct the many different perspectives and concerns that comprised the drama surrounding the investigation of Averbuch's killing.
