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Criterion Theatre
Accidental Death Of An Anarchist (2014)
Dario Fo translated by Simon Nye
Sat 5th July to Sat 12th July
Memory
Director – Bill Butler
Production Photos
Cast
Bertozzo – Hugh Sorrill
Maniac – David Butler
Constable 1 – Frances Dixon
Constable 2 – Riley Powell
Inspector – Becky Fenlon
Superintendent – Chris Firth
Journalist – Anne-marie Greene
Crew
Set Design – Simon Sharpe
Props – Bill Young
Props i/c – Sally Patalong
Props – Erica Young
Stage Manager – Tony Cuttiford
Wardrobe – Maureen Liggins
Wardrobe – Louise Robinson
Lighting Designer – Ian Knight
Sound Designer – Becky Bartlett
Lighting Operator – Ian Knight
Lighting Operator – George Rippon
Sound Operator – Dave Cornish
Set Build i/c – Simon Sharpe
Set Build – Pete Bagley
Set Build – Frances Dixon
Set Build – Nikki Gabriel
Set Build – Christopher Hernon
Set Build – Lukasz Nowacki
Set Build – Terry Rahilly
Set Build – Judy Sharpe
Set Build – Julie Timerick
Set Build – Kevin Woods
Set Paint i/c – Paul Chockran
Set Paint – Judy Talbot
Set Paint – Emma Padfield
Artwork – Paul Tate
Artwork – Emma Padfield
The Programme

Dario Fo's controversial farce has been seen by over half a million people. It has been performed all over the world, and has become a classic. A sharp and hilarious satire on political corruption, it concerns the case of an anarchist railway worker who, in 1969, 'fell' to his death from a police headquarters window. Simon Nye's witty translation updates and relocates the play close to contemporary England. It premiered at the Donmar Warehouse, London, in 2003.






Intellectual farce is on offer at The Criterion Theatre, Coventry, this week with this play by Dario Fo, the Italian winner of the 1997 Nobel Prize for literature.
This translated play needed a strong cast capable of not only high velocity verbal gymnastics but also strong physical talents - not least the ability to "dad-dance" and throw in a few rather stylish shapes to hits from The Specials and Welcome to the House of Fun from Madness.
Naturally the Criterion doesn't disappoint.
The farce was inspired by the real death, accidental or otherwise, of an Italian anarchist at the end of the 1960s and goes on to mock the abuse of power by those in authority the world over.
But are scapegoats and long-drawn out public inquiries a necessary evil?
Do perceived 'enemies' of the state have to end up falling out of windows to preserve some level of law and order?' Even the man playing "The Maniac" points out there could well be more undercover policemen in anarchist groups than the anarchist themselves.
And David Butler, who is The Maniac, is a force to be reckoned with in what could easily have turned into a one-man show except for the excellent support offered by Rebecca Fenlon (the inspector), Chris Firth (superintendent) and Hugh Sorrill, the hapless Bertozzo.
And that's before we meet Anne-Marie Greene transformed into a red-headed Rebekah Brooks style journalist, Riley Powell as the young constable who hardly gets a word in and Frances Dixon, who has to utter a rather rude word in her first appearance on stage in years.
But it's David Butler's performance, directed by his father Bill Butler, that leaves the audience speechless in admiration...before they collectively burst into spontaneous hysterics.
Littered with local and national references, some of them more confortable than others, this is farce, but not as we know it in this country. Just a million times better.
Rating 9.
Barbara Goulden
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