Almost by Chance an Anarchist

Dario Fo between Harlequin and Avant-garde

Abstract

Bent Holm’s paper analyzes a famous work by Dario Fo, Accidental Death of an Anarchist, which was staged in 1970. The play deals with an event that actually happened the previous year: Pino Pinelli’s death while he was in custody at the police headquarters in Milan. One of Holm’s fundamental contentions is that Fo’s political denunciation is not sufficient to explain the success of the performance. Rather, it must be sought at deeper levels than strictly ideological ones.