An Introduction to the Education Pack

ACCIDENTAL DEATH OF AN ANARCHIST An Introduction to the Education Pack This Education Pack is Designed to accompany “ Accidental Death Of An Anarchist” produced by Northern Broadsides. It is divided into two sections: Behind the Scenes Background & Research Behind the Scenes consists of interviews (in both written and video form), images and photographs designed to give you an insight into how Northern Broadside’s have approached this production. All the interviews, drawings and photographs were taken during the 3 week rehearsal period at the rehearsal space in Halifax and the Viaduct Theatre in Halifax. Behind the Scenes contains: an interview with Richard G Jones, Lighting Designer actors’ question Time a gallery of photographs from rehearsals Photo diary of a Get In illustrations of costume designs for the play illustrations of set designs for the play Background and Research contains articles, background information on the playwright, styles of theatre, different practitioners and the people on whom the play is based. It is designed to provide: discussion topics for seminars and essays learners with an opportunity to explore aspects of the play in more detail. These have been put together for students studying Drama, Theatre Studies and Politics at both A level and Degree Level. Background and Research consists of: Dario Fo—a brief history Guiseppe Pinelli—the man whose death inspired this play Jean Charles De Menezes and The Anarchist Salsa ‘The Task of Anarchy’ —an article by Deborah McAndrew Bertolt Brecht—a brief history Commedia dell’Arte—a brief history A breakdown of the characters in the play definitions of anarchism interesting links We hope that you enjoy this pack. Any feedback would be gratefully appreciated. Feedback can be sent to sue@northern- broadsides.co.uk ACCIDENTAL DEATH OF AN ANARCHIST The Task of Anarchy Deborah McAndrew reflects on bringing Dario Fo to the English stage. Translation, transposition, transformation… it’s all about words. For Percy Shelley, writ- ing in response to the Peterloo Massacre of 1819, Anarchy was a very dirty word. Dario Fo’s Anarchist is an innocent idealist, who inexplicably ‘falls’ from a 4th floor window whilst in police custody. Both writers were responding with righteous anger and keen political intent to acts of extreme brutality by government forces. Shelley’s lines And many more Destructions played in this ghastly masquerade, all disguised, even to the eyes, like Bishops, lawyers, peers and spies… could be a litany of the many guises of the Maniac in Fo’s iconic play. Just as Shelley regards the various spheres of power in England and the corruption beneath, so Fo brilliantly lampoons each sector of Italian governance with vicious precision, as in increasingly outra- geous costumes the Maniac presents grotesques of the Judiciary, the Military and the Church. Striking similarities, and yet they each define anarchy in such opposite terms. It’s a knotty problem, para- doxical even, that words we rely upon for certainty can be so slippery. Bringing Dario Fo’s Accidental Death of an Anarchist to a 21st Century English audience, for whom Shelley’s definition is more apposite, is no small task. Neither is it only the word ‘anarchy’ that trembles with uncertainty in translation. There is only one true version of Accidental Death of an Anarchist and that is Fo’s original Italian text. It is possible to present it faithfully, in its original time and place but, notwithstanding the fact that literal translation has something of the flavour of a Eurovision song lyric, to do so surely betrays the very essence of the work. It doesn’t feel enough to cut and paste contemporary political comment into those speeches where the playwright makes his direct attack on the Italian government, the US and the world at large. No, the context has to shift across the whole play for it to matter to us, now; for us to feel like this play is about us, speaking to us about our time. Britain today is very different to Italy in the 1960s, nevertheless our government agencies are difficult to call to account; foreign policy is duplicitous, at best; and our police are more than capable of presiding over an almighty and monumental cock-up - the kind of cock-up that costs an innocent man his life. It’s presumptuous to attempt to transpose the politics of the original play into modern Britain, but it must be done. Often I’ve heard players of Fo in this country complain that the performance lacked focus because they didn’t know whether they were in ‘Middlesbrough or Milan’. The language, location and the social context have to be transposed, but Fo’s politics are unequivocal; it’s hard to argue with the sublime observa- tion, lo scandalo e il concime della socialdemocrazia, (scandal is the fertiliser of social democracy), and contemporary parallels will always be there. When Accidental Death of an Anarchist was first staged in December 1970, it ran in tandem with an associated libel trial. Luigi Calabresi, the chief interrogating officer present at the death of the real Anarchist, Guiseppe Pinelli, was suing the editor of Lotta Continua, in which a series of cartoons had accused him of Pinelli’s murder. A painting of the Peterloo Massacre published by Richard Carlile ACCIDENTAL DEATH OF AN ANARCHIST The Task of Anarchy Today, in 2008, our production opens in the same week as the inquest into the death of Jean Charles de Menezes reopens. It’s a comparison too poignant to miss. However, just as Fo never refers directly to Pinelli, you won’t hear de Menezes named in the Broadsides production. Inference is enough and I take my lead from Fo. It’s far more powerful to not say what is in everyone’s minds. Like Chekhov and Pinter, Fo knows that what remains unspoken is as powerful, if not more so, than what is actually said. So much of Fo’s theatre responded to contemporary current affairs and was created for a politically literate audience that it has been described as teatro da bruciare, (throw- away theatre). Not so. Dario Fo’s political integ- rity scores a direct hit at the human condition for all time; just as he knows that a pompous bloke slipping on a glass eye will be funny forever. It is my adaptation of his play that must be thrown away, like every other version, in every other language. Only Fo’s text should be preserved, to be revisited by each generation and, like the rare jewel it is, polished and buffed to a rejuvenated glister. So what of that troublesome word – anarchy? It is anachronistic, no doubt, and carries secondary meaning for the English speaker; but that for me is its greatest asset. It allows the piece, despite the ‘update’ to work as a kind of parable. In a play examining a society reeling from a series of bomb attacks, the word ‘terrorist’ comes to mind more readily than ‘anarchist’. However, I have assiduously avoided the ‘T-word’ precisely because that is not what this play is about. I don’t want to get sidetracked into the thorny undergrowth of anti-terrorist ideology, race and religion. This play is about what a terror threat does to us; how we respond, and how our values are stretched to breaking point and beyond. It cannot be accepted that extraordinary rendition, Guantanamo Bay, the shooting of an innocent young man on the London Un- derground and all the other abuses, political, military and economic that have characterised the last seven years are in any way justified by the ‘current climate of terror’. Fo’s brilliant satire provides us with a frame- work for that painful self scrutiny which any truly civilised society must continually undergo. However they individually define Anarchy, Dario Fo’s task and Shelley’s too is to ask the difficult questions and provoke a sense of moral outrage in those who receive their art. As Percy Bysshe puts it, ‘Science, Poetry and Thought are thy lamps…’ ACCIDENTAL DEATH OF AN ANARCHIST A Breakdown of the Characters in The Play Debbie McAndrew prepared these character breakdowns for the actors before the first read-through Who they are and where do they come from? Il Matto The Maniac: the role Fo created for himself. He is the licensed fool, the clown – the truth telling idiot. The madman who escapes the circumscription of authority because he is mad. He has no past life, other than invention and disguise; no name; no real identity. He carries centuries of theatrical tradition and consequently has a quality which is eternal, almost immortal. Commissario Sportivo Pisani: a satirical representation of Commissario Luigi Calabresi, the chief interrogating officer present at the death of Guiseppe Pinelli. Italian audiences would have been familiar with a photo of him wearing a polo-neck sweater and a sports jacket. Fo describes his attire in detail in the original, and makes references to the region of Calabria – an obvious pun on his name. He was known by the nickname ‘Commissario definestra’ and the letter quoted in the play by Feletti is based on one printed in an anarchist weekly. In the original play Fo nicknames Pisani ‘Finestra-cavalcioni’ – literally, window-straddler. II Questore The DCI: Actually Il Capo Questore, Chief of Police in Milan (so a bit higher than a DCI, and usually translated as Superintendent). At the time of Pinelli’s death this was Marcello Guida. Maria Feletti Maria Feletti:based on Camilla Cederna, a journalist of the left-wing weekly, L’Espresso, who wrote the book ‘Pinelli, una finestra sulla strage’ – Pinelli, a window on the massacre.

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