Dario Fo free essay sample

Accidental death of an Anarchist, originally titled Morte Accidentale di un Anarchico , is an Italian play by the Nobel Prize winner Dario Fo. Dario Fo, the Nobel prize winner in 1997, is something of a phenomenon: the brilliant, absurdist, ultra-leftist, anti-fascist Italian playwright, known (along with his wife, Franca Rame, who was kidnapped and raped by Neofascist thugs associated with the carabinieri, police, in 1973) for farce, absurdist comedy, and for wild slapstick one-man improvisational shows. The play was first published in 1970, in Italy, is a social satire and a political drama. It uncovers the crime or criminals, police, corruption, imposters, death and dying, journalism and journalists, and anarchism or anarchists. Fo’s Accidental death of an Anarchist responds to events unfolding in Italy in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Generally, it looks at police corruption and suspicions regarding the government’s conspiracy in this corruption. It addresses the actual death of an anarchist who was being held in the police custody. We will write a custom essay sample on Dario Fo or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page In its first two years of production, Dario Fos 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 recognized 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. In the play Death of an Anarchist, Dario Fo expresses his political concerns, using high humor. He incorporates stock characters such the Madman and the superintendent to address issues like abuse of power, while using farce and satire to emphasize his point. All these points force us to think about the issues in contemporary society. The Madman has the main role in Death of an Anarchist. We can compare him to the Commedia Dell’arte character Arlecchino as both are very intelligent and unpredictable in their plans. It is through the Madman the audience learns the truth about the death of the anarchist. The madman constantly changes his character in the play, representing the deception and disguise of the police force and ridiculing those in power. In Act One, Scene Two, the Madman says, â€Å"I’m not pushing. You have been seized by a raptus. † The irony, in this great comic line, shows how absurd the police statements are. Another example is when the Madman’s arm falls off and he mockingly states: â€Å"Next you’ll be pulling off my leg. † This statement stresses Dario Fo’s message about the injustice and lies by the police in society. The Madman is very intelligent and this helps him to control the authoritative figures and make them out to be foolish and weak. For example in Act One, Scene Two, he points to be a nervous twitch in his neck. This is comic because he threatens the police with something that couldn’t possibly cause them any harm. The Madman convinces the police to re-write their version of events; thus making them look like fools. You know what I say You mean draw up a third version? (Act One Scene Two). Here he uses irony to satirize police conduct, again reinforcing Fos idea that people in power know nothing. By making the audience laugh, Fo is also able to become closer to them, making his political views more important. The Madmans lines at the end of the play- Whichever way it goes, you see, youve got to decide-emphasizes the point Fo makes about the fact that there are always different outcomes possible for any event. The Superintendent is one of the main characters in Accidental Death of an Anarchist. He is cynical and sarcastic and is always offering advice. He represents the police force. The Superintendent reflects the abuses of police power that were occurring at the time. This is shown in Act One, Scene Two when he speaks about the statement made by the police â€Å"†¦ more like a correction’†. He tries to ‘purge’ their mishappenings, using a neutral euphemism for an unpleasant subject. This stirs anger in the audience who are forced to think about how openly and confidently the Superintendent expresses his corruption. He heightens the comedy in the play and Fo makes him completely unaware, contradictory of someone who is meant to be learned. In Act Two, Scene One, the Superintendent exclaims â€Å"†¦your Honor, you’re taking the piss. † Not only does it expose the police’s disrespect for the law and it’s proceeding through the use of his farcical comment, but it is also ironic that what he has said is such an understatement. There were many themes presented in Accidental Death of an Anarchist including that of the abuse of the power by the authoritarian, for personal gain and achievement. The characters in the play reflects it in there words or actions. For example, Miss Feletti uses her position as a journalist to gain money and improve her status. The Madman brings out the irony in the journalists of that time and their journalism. They know everything happening outside their country but aren’t aware of the condition of their own country and its people. Maniac:You are a journalist but what will you achieve? A huge scandal Feletti: Not a bad days work. (Act Two, Scene Two) This line helps the audience to see Feletti as someone who is two-faced, pretending to do whats in the interests of the public, but having the underlying knowledge that a good story will gather big bucks. This is exactly the way Fo views journalists. The Maniac in this case is used to point out how far individuals will go for their own benefit. The use of farce or parody in The Accidental Death of an Anarchist is also a very conscious political decision on Fo’s part which draws itsel f from medieval popular culture. Bakhtin describes parody as a ‘comic doubling’ where the forms/mediums of representation become objects of representation. Thus, in the play Fo puts the form of representing reality practiced by official history within the frame of critique of social democracy. Fo’s parodied and travestied forms are also ‘intentional dialogzied hybrids’, it is an interactive conversational form where a dialogue occurs of voices from different discourses and perspectives; which has a subversive effect on the uni-dimensional nature of an official narrative. For instance, when the Madman is parodying the judge, it is interspersed with his own comments as well. In conclusion, it can be said that the performances of The Accidental Death of an Anarchist by Fo between 1970-1972 in itself constituted a subversion of official history. Fo at that time was not only performing in official bourgeoisies institutional theatrical circuits, but in proletariat spaces like Case del Popolo, movie houses, dance halls, etc. To quote Fo, â€Å"we invented a form of theatre for these spaces, controversial performances which created great debates that went on hours after the shows†¦their desires and needs came up directly from these debates and the subjects matter we took followed directly from them. † The play created a strong political atmosphere, running around two hundred shows and reaching out to more than three million people. Fo was assaulted and imprisoned and his wife, Rame was kidnapped, brutalized and abused as punishment for their part in exposing the cover up.