- Paperback: 176 pages
- Publisher: A&C Black; New edition edition (April 1 2004)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0413772675
- ISBN-13: 978-0413772671
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 13 x 1 cm
- Shipping Weight: 136 g
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #486,110 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
"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
Product Description
Student edition of Fo’s subversive drama based on a true-life story. A prisoner falls from a window at police headquarters, leading to a chain of events in which the judicial and police corruption of 1970s Italy is thrown into relief. Includes text, notes, commentary and background.
Dario Fo was born in 1926. Awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1997, he is a political activist and national hero, as well as Italy’s most famous living playwright.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best!,
By
This review is from: Accidental Death of an Anarchist (Paperback)
In the age we're living in today, this is the perfect satire of police departments. We always here in the news about some cop in some city getting caught framing someone innocent (or sometimes worse). Fo does a wonderful job of humorizing that situation. Some might call the play over-the-top, but they're just missing the humor of it all. I've read a lot of plays, and this is definitely one of the best modern plays out there. Everything about it screams "wit." The characters are great, and memorable too. If you have the chance to buy it, don't miss it!
5.0 out of 5 stars
Way Too Much Zen,
This review is from: Accidental Death of an Anarchist (Paperback)
I saw a small production of this play a few years ago in downtown Minneapolis and was most interested in what it had to say about police interrogation techniques. This is not a topic which I would expect to be popular now, as most emphasis has been shifted to deadly confrontations, and the only major death in this play is of a suspect who was hanging out of a police department window before he dropped to his death. In the history of people being pick up for interrogation, this might be as famous someplace in Italy as the Biko case in South Africa, where police in Port Elizabeth picked Biko up and slammed him against the wall because he was not cooperating fully in their investigation of his attitude toward law and order.I thought that the theme of the play was that the police get overly zealous in trying to pin a crime on a particular person once the police have made up their collective minds who they think should have committed the crime, as the defense allegations in the famous O.J. murder case seemed well founded when the methods of the L.A.P.D. were subject to the scrutiny of attorneys who are aware of how these things are usually done. In the case of the actual event upon which the Accidental Death of the Anarchist was based, the police techniques were subject to an official investigation, and the play was written as on ongoing farce which kept Italy informed as more facts came to light. The play may be way beyond the Zen of any audience, but if people think that something about the nature of the police is revealed in it, I don't think that those people should be considered as paranoid as they ought to be. Anyone who loses sleep over this kind of thing hasn't adjusted well to modern society, so they can probably find a shrink to give them pills that will put them to sleep, but that is a different topic, but not much different, really.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A bitingly funny satire,
By
This review is from: Accidental Death of an Anarchist (Paperback)
"Accidental Death of an Anarchist," by Dario Fo, is adapted by Gavin Richards from a translation by Gillian Hanna. The Methuen Modern Plays edition contains an introduction by Stuart Hood; Fo himself contributes an author's note and a postscript. The opening pages note that the original Italian edition had a copyright date of 1970. The author's note describes how the play was inspired by the death of an anarchist being held in police custody.This outrageous comedy opens with a character known as the "Maniac" being brought to a police station. It's a very "metatheatrical" piece; Fo warps theatrical conventions and makes jokes in a way that reminds me a bit of Luigi Pirandello's "Six Characters in Search of an Author." There are some really funny scenes, but a very serious vein still runs throughout the piece. Ultimately, this is a thought-provoking piece about truth. What is the true story, and how do you discover it? Fo's satiric wit explores police brutality as well as the relationships among the police, the media, and the political establishment. I recommend this piece by the Nobel Prize winning Fo to all with an interest in 20th century drama and/or political activism.
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