'Accidental Death of an Anarchist' a political farce - and a farewell

ARTS/ENTERTAINMENT

THE ANN ARBOR NEWS • THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19,1987

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'Accidental Death of an Anarchist' a political farce — and a farewell

By CHRISTOPHER POTTER

NEWS ARTS WRITER

“I’ll be back,” insists David Bernstein. “I am back, in fact.”

“Look for Streetlight Theater in Chicago,” proclaims Jeff Dorchen. “And come in droves.”

“It’s hard to leave," sighs Barbara E. Thorne. “But Theater Canard (Streetlight’s new moniker) calls.”

Oh, sob! Oh, sniffle! Should auld acquaintance .. . and all that jazz. Though it’s a little incongruous for an incendiary exercise in political theater to double as a teary theatrical farewell, such is the unavoidable case with Performance Network’s production of Dario Fo’s “Accidental Death of an Anarchist,” which opens this evening at the Network’s seedy yet beloved headquarters on West Washington Street.

It’s a show both didactic and hilarious, as only Italian playwright and activist Fo can blend the two. Director Thorne describes “Anarchist” as “a combination of Marx (Karl) and Marx (Groucho).”

Alas, this zany political farce will also mark the final Ann Arbor appearance (for a while, anyway) of a trio of local theatrical luminaries. David Bernstein, who not only founded Performance Network but was also the guiding creative force behind Ann Arbor’s Medieval Festival, packed his family off to Minneapolis two months back, and has since been commuting madly ’twixt old home and new before making a permanent move in December.

Thorne, a long-time standout at the Network and Ann Arbor’s Brecht Company, will soon depart for Chicago to join the avant garde Theater Canard, formerly Streetlight Theater, most of whose members departed Ann Arbor in September. Brecht and Network mainstay Jeff Dorchen, a prime writer and innovator for Streetlight Theater, will also join his old mates in the Windy City when “Anarchist” concludes its run three weeks hence.

Other participants In the production include Roger Kerson (who’s been seen all too little on local stages recently), Annette Jagner, Elliot Jackson and Peter Knox.

For Bernstein, the show makes for a kind of historical bookending to his stint at the network. “When we opened Performance Network in 1981, our first show was (Fo’s) ‘We Won’t Pay, We Won’t Pay!’ At the time, we also had a script of ‘Accidental Death,’ and we said ‘Maybe someday we’ll do that, too.

“Since I committed myself to turning over (Network) managerial duties to people here (i.e. Linda Kendall, Joe Braughton and Anne Stoll), I needed to do more than just leave a pile of papers. So I said ‘All right, I’ll come back and stay until Christmas or the end of the year. So when the idea of this show came up, I said, ‘Well, why not?’ That’s where it all started, and here it is.”

“Accidental Death of an Anarchist” derives from the actual 1969 death of an Italian anarchist “who mysteriously plunged to his death from a fourth-floor window at a police station in Milan,” explains Bernstein. “He’d been accused of planting a bomb in a railway station. In the years following, they discovered it was actually paramilitary fascist organizations that planted the bombs and had tried to blame anarchists and leftist groups.

“They just arrested the last member,” adds Thorne, “who’d been hiding out in Brazil for 17 years. So right now the trial is going on (in Italy) for the incident this play is based on.”

Playing out its horrifying events in the style of a madcap farce, “Anarchist” features a self-styled “maniac” (played by Bernstein) who insinuates himself into the Milan police station and, by way of assorted verbal and physical tricks, exposes the massive cover-up of the “accidental” death instigated by the authorities.

“When the play was first done,” says Bernstein, “it was typical of a lot of Fo plays. It was more like guerrilla theater, not meant to be presented to the general public. So it was a bit of a challenge: How are we gonna do this play?”

Fortunately, “The show was originally done improvisationally, so that’s kind of what we’re doing. It is a farce, even though the incident itself is very grim. It’s the kind of show where you laugh, and then think ‘Why am I laughing?’ ”

“There’s a lot of physical comedy in this,” says Thorne, who adds that the company has inserted a bevy of Americanized political references for audiences unfamiliar with Italian politics of the late ’60s. “I keep comparing it to the Marx Brothers.... There’s lots of physical takes - up on the chair, down on the floor.”

“If you want to stay away from straight propaganda,” agrees Jeff Dorchen, “you’ve got to mix it up. And you’ve got to create images on stage that kind of jostle things, force things into conflict. And that’s what can make political theater entertaining, rather than just some kind of diatribe.”

'Accidental Death of an Anarchist,' will be presented today through Sunday, Nov. 27-29 and Dec. 3-6. Curtain times are 8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays and 6:30 p.m. Sundays. Performance Network is located at 408 W. Washington. Tickets are $7 general admission, with a $2 discount for students and seniors. For further information call 6630681.

PHOTO CAPTION: Performance Network presents 'Accidental Death of an Anarchist,' by Italian playwright Dario Fo, a farcical look at police cover-ups based on a real incident which took place in Milan in 1969. The cast includes (left to right) Roger Kerson, Elliot Jackson, Annette Jagner, David Bernstein, Peter Knox and Jeff Dorchen.