Accidental Death of an Anarchist

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Bloomsbury Academic, 2003 - Drama - 100 pages

'The quality that makes Fo uniquely powerful ... [is] the ability to wring wild laughter out of insidious corruption' Guardian

'Simon Nye's witty translation updates and relocates the play ... suitably close to contemporary England. Fo is that rare thing, a far-left playwright with a popular, comic touch. And his stinging attack upon the black arts of government cover-up, manipulation and mendacity could not be more timely' Evening Standard

In its first two years of production, Dario Fo's controversial farce, Accidental Death of an Anarchist, was seen by over half a million people. It has since been performed all over the world and is widely recognised as a classic of modern drama. A sharp and hilarious satire on political corruption, it concerns the case of an anarchist railway worker who, in 1969, 'fell' to his death from a police headquarters window.

This version of the play was premiered at the Donmar Warehouse, London, in February 2003.

Commentary and notes by Joseph Farrell.

From inside the book

Contents

Dario
v
Commentary
xxiii
Further Reading
lxiv
Copyright

1 other sections not shown

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About the author (2003)

Dario Fo was born in Sangiano, Lombardy, Italy on March 24, 1926. He was educated at the Brera Fine Arts Academy in Milan. During World War II, he was conscripted into the army but fled and went into hiding with the help of his parents, who were active in the resistance. After the war, he became a stage designer but eventually became a playwright, director, and performer. He wrote more than 80 plays including Mistero Buffo (Comic Mystery), Accidental Death of an Anarchist, Fedayin, The Open Couple and an Ordinary Day, The Pope and the Witch, and Plays, Two written with his wife Franca Rame. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1997. He died on October 13, 2016 at the age of 90.

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