| Nobel Prize laureate Dario Fo's chaotic satire probes the death of a railway worker in police custody in Accidental Death of an Anarchist, opening September 9 for a limited run at the Richard Hugo House in Seattle. Rooted in Italian traditions of farce and commedia dell'arte, Anarchist is a ballet of clowning, buffoonery, wit, and scathing criticism set in a corrupt police headquarters and led by a heroic madman.
Strawberry Theatre Workshop (Strawshop) returns for 2005 by again putting its resources into an ensemble of actors, directors, and designers trained for physical play. Gabriel Baron, fresh off his leading role in Fo's Archangels Don't Play Pinball at Capitol Hill Arts Center, directs. Baron assembles a cast of Seattle comic favorites including Darragh Kennan as the Maniac and Rhonda J. Soikowski as the Reporter. The police interrogators are M.J. Sieber, Michael Patten, Gavin Cummins, and David Goldstein.
When speaking of the play, Gabriel Baron says, "I feel like there is a large percentage of the American population that needs an awakening slap in the face. Not only do they need--they want--a slap in the face, as long as that slap is accompanied by a cheesecake. In the case of Dario Fo's Accidental Death of an Anarchist, the slap in the face is a good hard look at a very tragic, very real event perpetrated by the same powers meant to protect us from harm and seek out justice for harm-doers, while the cheesecake is a madcap, roller-coaster of laughs and fun."
Strawshop has a mission to open up conversation about the most controversial issues through expertly crafted plays. Dario Fo joins a list of vital, activist writers embraced by the company that already includes musician Woody Guthrie (This Land, September 2004) and novelist Charles Dickens (Fellow Passengers, December 2004).
Fo is one of the world's great living playwrights, and yet remains obscure in the U.S. because he does not write in English, and his comic language and timing are challenging to translate. His strength is in the creation of texts that are always open for creative additions and dislocations, continually encouraging the actors to improvise, which means that the audience is activated in a remarkable way. The Strawshop production of Anarchist includes several historical additions and updates, where the author has encouraged them.
Fo's springboard for Accidental Death of an Anarchist were real events and real characters. At the story's core is a bombing at the Agricultural Bank in Milan in 1969, which killed seventeen people and wounded more than 100. After the attack, fascists in the Italian Social Movement distributed leaflets denouncing the "red terror" and police in Milan went into action, sweeping up a number of socialist, communist, and anarchist activists in the city. One of these was Giuseppi Pinelli, a railway worker, who endured four days of police interrogation, then "fell" out of a fourth floor window in police headquarters and died. It was later revealed that the bombings were not the work of anarchists at all, but of three right-wing fascists, who were convicted of the crime ten years later, and then admitted to being paid police informers.
These events and the cover-up that followed sent a shock wave throughout Italy and Italian politics. One of the first to act was the playwright Fo, who had Accidental Death of an Anarchist on its feet less than a year after the bombings, lampooning the police inspector in charge of the investigation, who was eventually exposed and convicted of manslaughter for Pinelli's death. Anarchist toured Italy and caused a sensation itself, creating a storm of controversy in the press, and bomb threats to the theatres. It has since been presented on stages around the world as an all-purpose protest play. Fo claims that Anarchist has been the most performed play in the world over the last forty years, with productions in very testing circumstances: fascist Chile, Ceaucescu's Romania and apartheid South Africa. In Argentina and Greece the cast of early productions were all arrested.
Anarchist has been produced in Seattle at least three times in the last decade, but not in the post-9/11 environment of compromised civil liberties and the Patriot Act. Strawshop artistic director Greg Carter says that the parallels between the political climate that inspired Anarchist and the current political situation in the U.S. are frighteningly obvious. "The reason this play has resonated all over the world is that it isn't just a play that says the police and government are lying to you. That's old news. It's a play that says it's our fault. In the second act, Fo literally places a citizen's representative onstage and takes pock shots at her as well. Accidental Death of an Anarchist says to its audience, 'I want each one of you to think about what is being said and draw your own conclusions.' I think that's what political art is supposed to do."
Strawshop continues to push aside the "fringe" label, by hiring artists better known for their work on Seattle Center stages:
The director Gabriel Baron drew raves for his acting performance as Danny Saunders in The Chosen at Seattle Repertory Theatre this winter, and is scheduled to play the lead in Honus and Me at Seattle Children's Theatre next year.
Darragh Kennan plays the Maniac, a role originated by Dario Fo himself. Kennan appeared in The Time of Your Life at Seattle Repertory Theatre, and played Ui in the Capitol Hill Arts Center production of Brecht's The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui.
The rest of the cast includes Michael Patten (Pissani), who recently appeared as Freddy Fellows in Noises Off at Seattle Rep and was Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew at Seattle Shakespeare Company. M.J. Sieber (Superintendent) is best known for his work with Seattle Children's Theatre, where he played Alexander in Alexander and the Terrible Day and Pete in Bunnicula this past season. Rhonda J. Soikowski (Reporter) directed the Christmas Carol adaptation Fellow Passengers for Strawshop in 2004, and recently appeared onstage in Flo & Glo (the Do Group) and Paper Airplane (Collaborator). Gavin Cummins (Bertozzo) played Salvador Dali in Lobster Alice at ArtsWest, and David Goldstein (Officer) is fresh from his role as Athos in Theater Schmeater's park performance of The Three Musketeers.
Scenic design and construction is by Greg Carter (designer of This Land: Woody Guthrie, Book-It's The Awakening, and Portland Center Stage's Pride & Prejudice in November). Fellow Passengers designers Eldon Tam (lights) and Erin Eave (costumes) return to Strawshop for Anarchist as well. Live music is by Sebastian Lange.
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