Dario Fo is an Italian actor-playwright, and director. Fo's work, influenced by Bertholt Brecht and Antonio Gramsci, was political. Fo was inspired by 'illegitimate' theatre and used it to his advantage of creating satirical plays towards right-winged parties. Illegitimate theatre is exceptionally useful for social change, to provoke emotional reactions, discussion, reflection, and allows interaction between performers and spectators.
As Dario Fo is a communist, and has been likened to the 'jesters of the Middle age', he is able to produce works that express his views that poke fun at authority while 'upholding the dignity of the downtrodden'.
Dario Fo believed in social equality, and had a concern for where there was unjustified assumptions and inequality which I assume helped him to produce 'An Accidental Death of an Anarchist', as well as the real event that occurred. Although we only do a little of the beginning of the scene and not the whole play, which I feel doesn't allow Dario Fo's views to be relayed upon the audience, but rather just gives the audience something to laugh at and be entertained, we as actors are able to understand what Dario Fo truly intended to put across when we get our scripts and go away and do our research, we come back more knowledge of the world around us.
A farce is a light, humourous play in which the plot depends upon a skillfully exploited situation rather than upon the development of character.
A satire is the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding individuals, corporations, government or society itself, into improvement. The Daily Show, South Park, Family Guy, newspapers exemplify the use of satires to educate uniformed audiences of political matters.
John Cleese said:
'If I can get you to laugh with me, you like me better, which makes you more open to my ideas. And if I can persuade you to laugh at the particular point I make, by laughing at it you acknowledge its truth'.
Dario Fo's use of farce and satires allows Fo to express his views successfully towards his audience by using the emotional lever of humour, thus opening their minds to ideas they wouldn't directly face and rather reject.
Accidental Death of an Anarchist is a farce, a play designed to expose the lies and conflicting stories of each story relayed by the police about the 'accidental death of an anarchist' who fell to his death from a fourth-story window, while at the same time entertain the audience by highly exaggerating the situation.
Dario Fo bases the play around the events of on an anarchist railway worker, Giuseppi Pinelli, who was arrested in connection with a terrorist bombing in Milan while being interrogated at Police Headquarters fell to his death from a fourth-story window. Fo believed that Pinelli's death was a plot executing a string of bombings, made by right-wing extremist to undermine the Italian Communist Party that they were leftists terrorists.
Having watched the play on Youtube, the Maniac, who seems to have a personality disorder, carries out a number of impersonations after being called in questioning for fraud but decides to be the interrogator to find out what really happened after stealing the file on the anarchist's death. As the play is satirical, there is no development in the main character, the maniac, but rather we focus on the events. The only development one can say is used, is the development of the Maniacs dream of becoming a judge. Fo uses the Maniac to reveal the attempts made by the police to cover up the truth. Fo stated that by 'injecting absurdity into the situation, the lies become apparent.'
In my research further into the play and stumbling on Dario Fo's article in American Theatre, my understanding became more transparent to the Maniacs interest in impersonating a judge. As the maniac explains what's going on about wanting to be a judge, a edge of seriousness has to be imparted as it gets political. There seems to be a link to the higher you grow the less you are linked to the real world but the maniac and the judge are closely relateable as the maniac seems to have a severed link to the real world although he understands what's going on he isn't exactly normal. Although the Maniac explains how he'd love to impersonate a judge, Dario Fo allows the Maniac to actually become a judge to 'accuse, convict, judge, and pass sentence' on the police.
Dario Fo uses wit to create a normal interrogation scene to connect with a real life event, and make the maniac appear facetiously which captures the audience attention especially when they see that the maniac is too smart for his own good, and causes a disturbance within the station. Dario Fo is able to impart his views that Pinelli was murdered due to conflicting statements about how he had died in this piece of theatre, adding onto the Brechtian style, and certainly getting the audience to laugh, then make them think, allowing him to make his cake and also eat it.
While reading the play and learning my lines, I noted that the Maniac seems to be fond of Sigmund Freud and proud in the fact he is a 'certified psychotic'. I didn't understand the Maniacs reference of the fee being important to a treatment and Sigmund Freud.
On my research of Sigmund Freud and money, I came across that Sigmund Freud believed that treating a patient in analysis for free created a transference-countertransference problem that might doom the treatment to failure. As the Maniac agrees with Freud that 'a fat bill is the most effective panacea especially for the doctor', my interpretation was that there was a correlation between the doctor receiving money for the treatment given, and the treatment given by the doctor. Presumably I thought that mentally, one must feel that if a doctor charges very high for his treatment that his treatment is very beneficial. A doctor could take advantage of a patients mindset if his family believe in 'the best care only' and charge whatever price for the treatment and the patient would gladly pay it because they believe they are getting better. It is almost like a placebo effect, the more I pay, the better I will be. This allowed me to understand the maniac that as a character, he is more than just a maniac. He is a smart maniac. Although he is labelled by society as a maniac and probably stupid, which society tends to steer clear from, he uses this to advantage by obviously being very knowledge, knowing Penal Codes, making 'normal' people look stupid instead as when one does not know something, it is easier to confuse them which is probably how he has been able to get away with fraud twelve times. By being proudly labelled a 'certified psychotic' he has used this to his advantage of getting away with crimes and getting the police to admit their heinous crime of covering up the truth.
