About the work
Accidental Death of an Anarchist (original title "Morte accidentale di un anarchico") is a political farce by Dario Fo. It was written under the immediate impression of the death of the anarchist Giuseppe Pinelli, who fell from a window of Milan police headquarters during an interrogation in 1969, and premiered on 5 December 1970 at the Capannone di via Colletta in Milan, performed by Fo's own theatre troupe.
Plot
At a police station, Commissioner Bertozzo and a sergeant interrogate a man who has posed as a psychiatrist and turns out to be a compulsive impersonator. Under a series of changing identities, he drives the officers into ever more contradictions until the official version of an arrested anarchist's "accidental death" during interrogation is exposed as a cover-up.
Cultural significance
The play combines immediate political urgency with Fo's grotesque slapstick comedy and was quickly restaged across Italy after its premiere; it remains one of Dario Fo's most frequently performed political plays.