Accidental Death Of An Anarchist

Part of a series of short runs at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, Accidental Death Of An Anarchist is a blazing rocket of an adaptation with a tour-de-force performance from Daniel Raggett.

Or should that be tour-de-farce? This dark comedy which exposes and parodies the working of the Metropolitan Police was controversial when Dario Fo and Franca Rame birthed it in 1970 based on real-life events in Italy. This version sold out houses in the Playhouse in Sheffield and the Lyric in Hammersmith before coming to the Haymarket theatre (coincidentally also the name of an 1886 anarchist bombing incident in the US).

We first meet a character known only as "the Maniac" (Daniel Rigby) in a London police station running rings around his arresting officer. Caught for impersonating a psychiatrist, his defence rests on the quite believable premise that he is certifiably insane (he even carries around a certificate to prove it). Before long, he throws on some half-moon glasses from a bag of props to become Judge Randall ("my pronouns are 'we' and 'us'") and starts looking into how an Italian train driver and supposed anarchist bomber managed to fall out of a window, the real-life inspiration for Fo and Rame's 1970 play.

Tom Basden’s script is merciless in its excoriation of the way the UK’s biggest law enforcement carries out its role. There’s an urgent anger in the way statistics and viewpoints are thrown out alongside the more absurd sight gags, bleak philosophy and unforgivably funny puns. The text has been updated since the Hammersmith run earlier this year to include newer references like the resignation honours. Its not always possible to hear everything over the audience laughter but there is more than enough to warrant to go off and buy the script.

Basden and director Daniel Raggett have created a comic work for the ages here with a script packed with zingers from crown to corns and performances that keep us locked into the story from the off. In Daniel Rigby, a stand-up and actor who won a BAFTA for his portrayal of Eric Morecambe in BBC2's Eric and Ernie, they have found the perfect Maniac; his award-deserving turn as the charismatic lunatic who believes that he is being watched by an audience sees him bouncing around the stage, giving us nods and winks as he does.

The real fun starts when our anti-hero as "Judge Randall" starts to probe the made-up stories published by the cops (both their original and second version). Why, he asks, did the suspect take so long after the initial police interview before deciding to jump out of the window - "was there a pile-up on the M1? Did he have to wait in for an Ocado delivery?" All the while, our insane anti-hero throws out barbed insights into the high levels of real-life police malfeasance and the pitiful levels of justice that followed (since Fo and Rame's play came out, there have been over three thousand deaths in police custody and only two successful prosecutions of police officers).
The Maniac sweetens his invasive questioning by charming the hapless plods with sardonic comments.

Satirical quips mock-sympathising with their situation ("honestly, all these student snowflakes demanding to defund the police - the government has been hard at it for the past 12 years") are mixed in with backhanded compliments: the Superintendent (Tony Gardner) is told that he has "the zeal of a colonial hero, winning over the natives with ball games and starvation" while Detective Daisy (Jordan Metcalfe) is "like a young Marlon Brando...or an old Daniel Radcliffe".

Packed with laugh-out loud moments and peppered with painfully on point observations, this riotous version of Accidental Death Of An Anarchist is a masterclass in how to combine social issues and comedy in a way that is faithful to the original work but highly relevant to a modern audience. Far less deserving productions have transferred from the West End to Broadway so we look forward to seeing where Rigby, Basden and Raggett take this next.

Accidental Death Of An Anarchist contiinues until 9 September.

Photo credit: Helen Murray