Theaterweek |
Accidental Death of an Anarchistby Anthony Chase |
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The chief virtue of the current Irish Classical Theatre production of Dario Fo’s 1970 play, Accidental Death of an Anarchist, is assuredly the central performance of actor John Warren. A former Buffalo resident who has come back to town specifically for this production, Warren is a clown of formidable power and range who was often underused (or misused) when he lived here. Indeed, his is a unique talent that can be difficult to contain. Warren requires a vehicle appropriate in proportion and tone. Highlights of his years in Buffalo included ICTC’s production of Joe Orton’s What the Butler Saw and BUA’s Psychopathia Sexualis. His idiosyncratic stage presence, precise diction and amazing comic timing also make him a gifted performer in the absurdist idiom of Samuel Beckett and Eugène Ionesco.
The work of Dario Fo would seem to have John Warren written all over it. Fo, the prolific Nobel prize-winning Italian playwright, actor, mime artist and director, is known for bitingly satirical plays that exist in a zany universe. To be sure, Warren gives a vivid performance, snatching the brass ring of comedy with every turn of the plot in which an insane man dons a number of disguises, infiltrates police headquarters and exposes the murder by police of an innocent man. Despite the serious surface details of the plot, the playwright tells the tale as deranged comedy.
The cast, which, in addition to Warren includes Gerry Maher, Christian Brandjes, Peter Palmisano, Guy Wagner and Dana Block, is first rate. Paul Todaro has directed the piece with tight-fisted precision and in a highly choreographed style that give the evening a kinetic power. The play unfurls like an overstuffed box of tricks, and the result is very engaging and entertaining. Todaro has, appropriately, peppered the text with references to contemporary American politics. In his Nobel lecture in 1997, Fo stated that “artistic expression that does not speak for its own time has no relevance.” The contemporary interjections in this production are wickedly funny, but certainly without the bite that Fo originally inspired.
True, some members of the audience did become visibly uncomfortable, and one couple walked out when reminded of the fact that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, or that the reconstruction of that country has brought breathtaking profits to Halliburton, the corporation where Vice President John Cheney served as CEO from 1995 until 2000. Still, such assertions are mere statements of fact that must be accounted for in a discussion of U.S. foreign policy. Discomfort at the suggestion that our government might be criticized, even in this playful production, highlights just how impervious some Americans are to self-critique.
Fo is a playwright who was routinely censored by his government in the early years of his career, who has been jailed, beaten up and threatened with murder. The Vatican called the 1977 broadcast of his performance in his 1969 play, Mistero buffo, the most blasphemous program in the history of television. For years, Fo, who had made Lyndon Baines Johnson and the Vietnam War particular targets, was denied a visa for entry into the United States.
The original audiences attending Accidental Death of an Anarchist in 1970 would have been very familiar with its inspiration. Like the 1992 Rodney King verdict, the presumed murder of Giuseppi Pinelli, an innocent man who somehow “flew” out of a window to his death while being questioned by police, had ignited and divided the public. Theaters in which the play was performed often received bomb threats. Today in Buffalo, the play seems remote and cerebral—not immediate and controversial—more like Brecht than Fo.
In other versions of the play, I have seen the name of Warren’s character translated as “The Maniac,” highlighting the political dimensions of the role. In the version being used at ICTC, Richard Nelson has called him “The Fool,” highlighting the wisdom that comes from nonsense, as in a Shakespearean tragedy. Given the context of this production, the change seems fitting. This Accidental Death of an Anarchist is a comic tour de force and a challenging reminder of the complex times in which we live, not an incisive critique statement or critique; the evening is also a vehicle for the talents of John Warren, and judged by these criteria, it is marvelously successful.
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