Accidental Death of an Anarchist

Millgate Arts Centre, Saddleworth, OL3 5DY

Wednesday 10th February 2027 7:30PM

Accidental Death of an Anarchist
by Dario Fo , adapted by Deborah McAndrew

A sharp and hilarious satire on police corruption,

How many earthquakes have happened in British politics (indeed world politics) since 1970? Fo’s exposé of police corruption originally told the true story of an Italian anarchist who mysteriously fell to his death from the window of a police station. The ‘Maniac’ (the truth-speaking fool) investigates, and in doing so reveals the idiocy of lies spun by officialdom - which seems ever current – this play asks if we are happy with what’s happening in this country now!

The play is based on the 1969 Piazza Fontana bombing and on the death of Giuseppe Pinelli, an Italian anarchist, during a police interrogation.
A sharp and hilarious satire on police corruption, it concerns the case of an anarchist railway worker who, in 1969, 'fell' to his death from a police headquarters window.

'I ought to warn you that the author of this sick little play, Dario Fo, has the traditional, irrational hatred of the police common to all narrowminded left-wingers and so I shall, no doubt, be the unwilling butt of endless anti-authoritarian jibes.' (Inspector Bertozzo, Central Italian Police HQ).

'A marvellous concept: a zany political farce.' (Michael Billington).

SADDLEWORTH PLAYERS