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Theatre Productions site includes a video exploring the behind the scenes of a current theatre adaptation by Deborah McAndrew. Actors talk about the themes and context of play as well as giving their opinion on the comedic elements presented. the scenes of another theatre production in Australia. Includes interpretations and context of reception for audiences today as well as unmasking the genres, such as commedia dell arte, which function in the play. production of the play in Hindi performed by the Budhan Theatre for local audiences.QuotesFrom the Deborah McAndrew Production:“Up-to-the-minute, politically sharp and hilarious” – The Observer“An absolute riot. Farce for the soul” – The Stage“Remarkable…If this is the kind of alchemy it intends to keep creating, (Northern Broadside- company-) is set to be one of Yorkshire’s finest exports for years to come” – Yorkshire“In a farce, the acting has to be larger-than-life to keep the audience engrossed. The central performance depends on the capability of the Anarchist to keep the energy level high and to keep the pace cracking along.” Paul SykesExtracts Extract from Italy, it is Fo's most-performed play, partly owing to its searing indictment of police corruption and strong suggestion that a similarly corrupt government body is underwriting this corruption. As Tom Behan indicates in Dario Fo: Revolutionary Theatre, directors around the world who want to respond to corruption in their own midst have turned to?Accidental Death of an Anarchist?to galvanize their audiences to political action, despite the great risks involved in doing so:Fo claims that?Accidental Death of an Anarchist?has been the most performed play in the world over the last 40 years. Its pedigree certainly is impressive: productions in at least 41 countries in very testing circumstances: fascist Chile, Ceausescu's Romania and apartheid South Africa. In Argentina and Greece the cast of early productions were all arrested.Because Fo allows changes to be made to his script, foreign directors can include material that makes the play relevant to their particular local situation. Of course, if?Accidental Death of an Anarchist?were not as well written and entertaining as it is, it would not be such a favorite choice of the world's directors and drama groups. What has made Fo's and this play's reputation, finally, is his great skill as a dramatist. An extract from 'Amico is a lecturer in the English Department of California State University, Bakersfield. In this essay, she explores Fo's play as a work of political theatre.The Italian actor and playwright Fo is known as a practitioner of political theatre. Political theatre, it is important to note, is not theatre that lectures an audience on a particular political belief system (or at least it is not supposed to do that). Political theatre is theatre that attempts to heighten the critical consciousness of its audience. In other words, dramatists with a political bent are interested in furthering audience members' ability to sort through the complexities of modern life so as to make informed decisions about weighty issues; they are not interested only in entertaining their audiences. Thus, despite the entertaining farce of Fo's?Accidental Death of an Anarchist, watching the play is more than just an enjoyable event.An extract from play is a dramatisation of fictional events taking place after an 'accidental death' similar to that following the 1969 Milan bombing. Although the play is set in Italy the events have a pertinence to Britain today. The 'only doing my job' policeman, the secrecy and cover-ups and the power of strengthening central state are problems with which we are all familiar.Political theatre needs to avoid preaching to its audience and consequently dramatists have often resorted to forms which distance their work from their immediate society; Brecht and Arden often set their plays in the past, others discuss politics through analogy (Arthur Miller) or allegory (Max Frisch). Dario Fo's 'Anarchist' is however set firmly in contemporary political debates but avoids preaching through its humour. Much of the humour comes from the Maniac's play-acting in the play. The political plot is however more complex for the Maniac reveals his ultra-left Trotskyism and confronts both the political police of the right and the paler pink communism of the investigative journalist Feletti. The sharp and satirical humour makes the politics more palatable. Laughter, says Fo's wife, the actress Franca Rame, opens not only people's mouths but their minds as well and allows some shafts of reason to strike home. So ultimately the audience is asked to judge between the strong arm tactics of the radical right, the militant and softer left and the anarchism which is victimised in the original murder of Pinelli and entertains through the play acting Maniac. Anarchism is a politics in opposition to bureaucratic red tape, unquestioning conformism, the dogmas of both left and right politics and the conventions most of which we learnt at school.Written by Frank Lyons (Director of an Bench Theatre Adaptation)Critical Material last time I saw Accidental Death of an Anarchist, Dario Fo’s extraordinary farce, was at the Bolton Octagon and I laughed so much I had tears of mascara running down my face.Now Kevin Shaw’s slick production at the Oldham Coliseum also had me laughing out loud.?Normally I don’t like farce but this is a very clever play about the serious subject of police corruption. Not a load of laughs there you’d think- but you’d be wrong. "Admittedly there are moments of pure silliness and even a musical number here and there - but if you’re prepared to go with the flow- then you’ll benefit from a really good laugh" With all its twists and turns, Fo’s anarchic comedy written in 1970, is worthy of any good murder/mystery laced with lethal humour. Based on true events, it showcases the playwright’s genius and it’s no wonder he won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Kevin Shaw’s sparkling production?uses a new adaptation by talented actress turned playwright,?Deborah McAndrew, who sets it in a police station in the north in the present day. A railway worker has been arrested under suspicion for a recent spate of bombings. Four hours later his body is found lying in the street below, but what was the true version of events that led to his ill-fated end?The comedy erupts, not from the death itself, but from the hilarious re-enactment of events leading up to the fall. Under the supervision of the mysterious Maniac, brilliantly played by Jack Lord as an unhinged imposter, he assumes a series of disguises in order to lead the officers on a merry dance as they attempt to coordinate their stories. There’s strong support from the cast which includes Leigh Symonds, Andonis Anthony, John Elkington and Matt Connor. Admittedly there are moments of pure silliness and even a musical number here and there - but if you’re prepared to go with the flow- then you’ll benefit from a really good laugh. This production lives up to its description as a classic by remaining politically sharp.? We’re promised that each performance will be unique as the cast add topical inserts from the news to the action. So there’s references to Somerset, bankers of course and a certain murder trial. The pace in the second act needs to rival the first and I’m sure it will as the plot twists and turns at such a pace that the ‘fourth wall’ isn’t so much cracked but is smashed to pieces.By Natalie Anglesey for the Oldham Coliseum Production famous farce by Dario Fo is rooted in Italian politics and popular theatre. Good as it is to see it revived, I regret the decision by director Robert Delamere to anglicise the play: if both the fun and the fury take time to come to the boil, it is partly because the production seems strangely rootless.The play is based on a notorious case: the death in police custody in 1969 of a Milan worker, Pino Pinelli, falsely accused of being a bomb-throwing anarchist. In Simon Nye's new version we are in a British cop-shop where a role-playing maniac turns up in the guise of a high court judge come to re-open the inquiry.Gradually he uncovers the lies, contradictions, and collusion on which police evidence is based. But, with the arrival of an investigative journalist, he launches into his argument: the uncovering of occasional scandals is a social palliative that simply leaves us with "a less unjust system of injustice".Given what we know about the detention of a retired British civil engineer on the say-so of the FBI, no one could deny Fo's play still has relevance. But you do not make it more universal by filling it with references to the Home Office or the haberdashery department at Peter Jones. The play springs out of a 1960s bombing campaign by neofascists; it is also rooted in the commedia tradition, in a way that led Joseph Farrell to dub Fo and his wife, Franca Rame, "harlequins of the revolution".Eventually, Delamere's production overcomes the gratuitous anglicisation. There is a priceless scene in which Rhys Ifans' judicial maniac cons the corrupt cops into singing anarchist songs. And Ifans himself, when he stops straining for laughs, actually becomes quite funny. His Spiderman routine is hard going, but when posing as a one-eyed forensic expert with a false arm he has acquired the right delight in absurd disguise. What I miss is the moral anger that should underlie the madcap zaniness.Simon Higlett has designed a suitably antiseptic set that spectacularly goes up in smoke. There is good work from Adrian Scarborough as the bumptious superintendent, Desmond Barrit as a harassed desk wallah, and Emma Amos as a slit-skirted journalist who is complicit in the corruption she uncovers. Although the production slowly wins one over, it is torn between reverence for the original and the desire to do a radical re-write. A more authentic version would have caught Fo's genius for using laughter as an incentive to political action.By Michael Billington turn politics into hilarious farce requires more ingenuity than you might think, but Italian playwright Dario Fo is a master of the art. How else could the real life cover-up of a brutal murder be made to seem funny? Sounds unlikely, but it is in 'Accidental Death of an Anarchist', the latest production from Havant's Bench Theatre. The cast clearly enjoy themselves hugely performing this play, and so does the audience. Only at the very end when asked to judge by the "nutter" who has been controlling the action, do the people in the theatre realise that they have been tricked by their enjoyment of the play into thinking through serious anarchical thoughts. This demonstrates how effective theatre can be as a vehicle for political debate.This production is notable for two firsts - Frankie Lyons as director, and Serge Morel in the central role of the maniac. Apart from a little self-indulgence by including some in-jokes, the director's use of shock tricks to make the audience jump outside the play then fall back in, came off in style, and every opportunity to win audience compliance was well milked. The energy of body-popping, Russian-dancing acrobatic Serge was a joy to behold and kept up the momentum of the farce. He has a hell of a lot of script to get off his chest, and if he sometimes had to sacrifice getting his tongue round every word for the sake of pace, fair enough. Of the four nasty coppers, Peter Corrigan was such a vicious-looking brute that he made Terry Cattermole seem like a very nice chap to be with. Pete Woodward's gum-chewing flatfoot doesn't have much to say but all his little gestures sum up the Jobsworth.'Accidental Death of an Anarchist' is performed from tonight to Saturday at 7.30 p.m. in Havant Arts Centre. After tonight's and Saturday's show, there is also a related "Fringe event" - 'The Death of Miss Stephani' by Bench Chairperson, Jacquie Penrose. Janet Simpson gives a very moving portrayal of a poor simple woman whose blameless life is ended by political violence.The News, 3rd May 1985 by Janice Macfarlane are two kinds of classic: those whose themes are so universal they speak to every age, and those which are a canvas on which any age can write its own story.?Accidental Death of an Anarchist?is the latter.Written as recently as 1970 it was inspired by the fall of from the fourth floor window of a Milan police station of a political activist in suspicious circumstances. But Dario Fo’s satirical burlesque has here been transformed in a version by?Men Behaving Badly’s Simon Nye into a study of the five years of social and economic austerity which have seized Ireland harder than anywhere else on these islands since the global financial meltdown of 2008.This is a raucous rollercoaster farce of huge hilarity. But its humour is a thin veil for a scathing attack on the various forces of the political and economic establishment. It is set in a Garda station which is the constabulary equivalent of Father Ted’s presbytery. Rank reflects a hierarchy of intelligence from the knowningess of Neil Fleming as the Superintendent, through the low cunning of Rory Mullen’s Inspector, the bumptious Paul Kealyn as the first copper on the scene and Paul Elliot’s dopey but willing Fr Dougal of a constable of little brain.The show is stolen by the mad capering of Patrick O’Donnell as The Maniac who upsets the neat policemen’s murder alibi. This is a bravura performance of slapstick, commedia and cartoon as he pretends to be a psychiatrist, judge, detective and finally a bishop. Immensely funny, O’Donnell nonetheless conveys a deeply knowing irony as he takes on, by turns, roles as a representative of the range of establishment institutions which Fo believes conspire to pull the wool over the eyes of the oppressed, distracted and befuddled downtrodden public.The production has huge pace but it sacrifices some of Fo’s original ambiguity. Dagmar Doring as the investigative journalist comes across as the champion of justice and disinfector of corruption where Fo intended her to be a communist campaigner intent on bringing her own self-interested agenda to bring to the process.Fo’s two alternative endings, which are designed to force the audience to make a choice, have here been resolved in an unsatisfactory act of final nihilism. But the evening thereby ends with a bang which is nicely characteristic of this rumbustious production.By Paul Valley for The Independent ................
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