"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.

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!

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.

In this book Dario Fo articulates the relationship between actor and audience in a way only someone who has accepted the physical and mental demands of the acting craft can do. Fo demonstrates he is one part actor, one part scholar, and one part inspired artist. Each page illustrates the line between how an actor acts and their audience cannot be separated from themselves, their society, or from the history of the craft. If nothing else, Fo's joy in performance helps explain why actors remain central to entertainment and to society.

Donald Sutherland praised this book on Charlie Rose 9/10/98Donald Sutherland praised this book on Charlie Rose 9/10/98.

That's good enough for me.

I plan to buy it for my daughter - a fledgling Commedia artist.

Dario Fo is an amazing artist! he left a legacy, including this wonderfully translated book and his many plays

This book offers a fantastic introduction to Nobel Prize Winner Dario Fo's theatre, cultural context and roots. It's essays discuss his performance, his writing and the wonderfully controversial and comical elements of Fo's unique theatre. The essays are by Fo specialists all over the world and they are excellently introduced by the editors (Farell and Scuderi), both eminent Fo specialists themselves. "Stage, Text and Tradition" is a very clear, concise and illuminating presentation of one of the greatest actors/performers/authors of own time. If you are in to theatre and life, I strongly recommend this book!

This is a wonderful, witty play that deserves to be brought back in print immediately. Quite different from the recent romantic Elizabeths in _Elizabeth_ (directed by Shekar Kapur) and _Shakespeare in Love_ (directed by John Madden) ELizabeth I here appears in male drag throughout the play. (The play is subtitled "almost by chance a woman.") Represented as a grotesque figure, Elizabeth regularly goes out in London disguised as a man in order to spy on her subjects. Written in the early 1980s, the play is a Jean Genetesque satire directed at Margaret Thatcher and her Tory government. It is one of many instances wherein Elizabeth is represented in drag. In a 1980s management training video, John Cleese played a Thatcherian Elizabeth hectoring a restive Privy Council. And the last episode of The British sit-com _Blackadder II_ (Miranada Richardson of _The Crying Game_ fame plays Quen Besie), a Prince Ludwig masquerades as Elizabeth and kills the entire court. More recently, Labame houston's playlet _Elizabeth R_ also has Elizbeth in drag. And in Sally Potter's _Orlando_, an ageing Elizabeth is played by the famous drag queen Quentin Crisp. Perhaps Fo's play is not so far away from _Elizabeth_ and _Shakespeare in Love_ as one might think at first sight. For though she does not appear in these films in male drag, Elizabeth is the cause of drag in others. In _Elizabeth_, Anjou's marriage proposal is dismissed after Elizabeth discovers him relaxing in bed dressed in women's clothes, and in _Shakespeare in Love_, only Elizabeth can see through the corss-dressed disguises of both Shakespeare and Viola. Fo's _Elizabeth: Almost by Chance a Woman_ deserves a wide readership. I certainly hope to see in print again soon.

This is an amazing collection of touching plays. Unlike most one person plays--- these stories are spoken through the voices of women, real women. I myself have seen a selection from this book performed and I was absolutely in awe of the unknown brillance of this tapestry of words. I can only hope this book will once again be published, so that others can enjoy it as much as I did.

Are you ready to sit back, relax and laugh a lot? Well, if you are, there is not a better book for you to read than Johan Padan and the Discovery of the Americas. Being that this piece of fiction is a fast read, it is great for a wide range of readers. From the young to the elderly, I'm sure everyone will see the humor. Behind the humor lies a story that will captivate many. Once you start reading this book you will realize that it is not very complex. It is almost a one character story with a few off stage characters. Dario Fo, the fantastic author of this book manages to fit one man's journey to America hundreds of years ago into under 150 pages. The novel contains humor, action, sex and many other concepts that help make any reader enjoy a book. Once you start, you will not put it down, and I do not wonder at all how Fo managed to win the Nobel Prize for literature. His ability to take a rather bland topic and spice it up is amazing. The ability to deeply describe scenes where Johan is alone or with another woman is amazing. He created a character with a strong voice and one very interesting journey. Johan meets almost everyone: from the men and women around Europe to the almost cave like Indians he encounters when he reaches America. This story will leave you spellbound and screaming for more!

A.L. Bell, in his ingnorance has overlooked the fact the Fo's statement is quite true, and if further researched his review would have also stated the fact that Mr. Fo had been one of Italy's greatest political satirists and has provided Europe with great satirical works in the latter part of the last century and continues to do so.

Dario Fo is a great artist and a great man. With his wife Franca he has written some of the best pages of Italian culture. I had the fortune of watching them act (live and on TV) in most of their plays. With the barest stage they can convey the richest combination of form and substance. They represent the core of the profound culture and sensitivity of the Italian working class, which so important has been in the social development of that country, and still is little known abroad (shaded by the stereotypical and outdated images of mandolins, meatballs, and mafiamen). I deeply encourage anyone to read as much as possible of what Dario has written.

I found on this website a review claiming that "Fo supports the WTC attackers". The author of that review should have gone a little deeper in reading the facts, just to discover that the intended message of the reported statement was quite opposite to the alleged one. The original text that includes the statement can be found at ...(in Italian). I believe the misunderstanding is far from casual. Nowadays the Italian Prime Minister controls almost every information medium. He has restored most of the political and cultural conditions that Italy was forced to "enjoy" between 1922 and 1943. It has become very hard for dissenting voices to reach a wide audience without having their messages distorted on the way. The "Corriere della Sera" excerpt from Dario and Franca's email on the 9/11 tragedy is just one more example of how easy it is to manipulate the truth by simply reporting minimal parts of it.

For decades Dario Fo and his wife, Franca Rame, have created some of the most interesting political theatre of the 20th century. Fo's work deals with social injustice, political freedom and economic policies. He often expresses pro-communist views. Common themes in Fo's work include critiques of fascism and terrorism. Much of his work is targeted at the working class

Fo is known for his use of the Italian tradition of commedia dell'arte. This tradition allows Fo to exploit taboo subjects in highly comic situations. Like the commedia dell'arte tradition, Fo's humor is bawdy and over the top. It is tremendously absurd and equally as witty.

Dario Fo won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

We Can't Pay! We Won't Pay!, Accidental Death of an Anarchist and Ordinary Couple are my favorite works by Dario Fo.

A fine book just to let you know what is that which could hold a universal audience griping through Fo is basically a italian artist. the improvisation of Fo's plays, essentially a charcteristic of popular performance is beautifully explicted through the book

This book presents a clear and concise analysis of Dario Fo's performance art. It explains how Fo's theater is based on popular forms, focusing on techniques, such as improvisation, and how Fo uses grotesque comedy as a weapon for political and social change. It is a pleasure to read.

I always look forward to the annual Nobel Prize for Literature with the hope that I'll be able to discover a new "diamond in the rough". When I read the descriptions of Fo's avant garde works, I thought it looked too strange for my taste. However, I came across this book on sale so I thought I'd take a look. I was very pleasantly surprised and actually had a hard time putting the book down.

This is a collection of four plays. The first one is rather political in nature and might seem more enjoyable with a better knowledge of contemporary Italian economics. However, the absurdity comes through very clearly. The comedy comes through as well. I came away with a pretty good grasp of the author's view of the Italian economic problems (as well as that of the European Economic Community). However, this leftist view point left me feeling that there is another side to the story. That, of course, is my problem and not the author's shortcoming.

The second play is an interesting and enjoyable look at Queen Elizabeth I done in great comedy and absurdity. There is a main character named Grosslady who steals the show. She speaks a sort of Esperanto slang that is absolutely hilarious. There is an accompanying translation in the back of the play to help the reader understand her "language". I normally dislike anything that detracts from the flow of the book. However, I enjoyed the availability of the translation to help me follow the flow of the book. At the same time, I made sure I read the actual lines that Grosslady has in the play because it is such a brilliant comedic concoction. For example, her word for England is "Angleterror". This was all brilliantly translated by Gillian Hanna.

The last two plays are interesting examinations of human relationships and interdependence. They continue in the comedy of the absurd.

Perhaps the best recommendation I can give this collection is that I am now looking to read more of Dario Fo's works. Give this one a try!

The first time I heard about Dario Fo was when he won the Nobel prize in 1997, and this was the first book of his that I could get my hands on.I wasn't disappointed.His plays are eminently readable and quite hilarious at times.The only drawback was that being not too well versed regarding Italian politics,some of the puns were loston me[in spite of the helpful notes provided at the back].If you enjoy reading plays you'll like this.