According to director Gretchen Teague, “What’s funny about this show, I think, is that it’s based in reality. There was this case of this anarchist who is questioned by police, and then accidently fell out the window (to his death).” Nathan Shelton indicates the “accidently” part should definitely be in quotation marks. “The ensuing trial of the police officers became fodder for Dario Fo’s script,” adds Teague. “And it was strange because the investigation reports were contradictory: some of the reports said it was an accident, and some said it was a suicide. And so when they started looking into it, all these things started to be uncovered, and this is (Fo’s) examination of that,” says Nathan Shelton. The improbable events occurred in Italy in 1968, and Fo’s play—originally in Italian—came out in 1970.
Ozarks Public Radio, “Real-Life Court Case Inspires Wild Comedy in ‘Accidental Death of an Anarchist'”
