There is more to the art of clowning than just makeup and slapstick, and no one can teach that lesson better than actor and professional stage devourer Steven Epp and his director and collaborator Christopher Bayes. The two previously brought Berkeley Rep audiences to their feet with 2012's A Doctor In Spite of Himself, and thankfully they are back with an adaptation of Dario Fo's 1970s anti-fascist Italian political farce, The Accidental Death of an Anarchist.
The play is an extremely funny and incisive look at the handling of a famous domestic terrorism case in recent Italian history by some bumbling cops who may or may not have pushed one of their of suspects out of a police headquarters window. It's by far Fo's most famous work, and the Nobel Prize-winning playwright and comedian is known for his edgy, satiric wit aimed squarely at the subjects of politics, corruption, organized crime, racism, and the Roman Catholic church.
The Berkeley production is an adaptation by Gavin Richards with a generous helping of ad lib clowning and fourth-wall-crossing asides to the audience by Epp complete with contemporary references. Scene 1 takes place in a first-floor office in a police headquarters in Milan, and the rest of the play takes place in an identical office four floors up, and in all of it Epp plays the character named only "Maniac" who impersonates several different people, primarily a local judge who arrives to coach two of the police inspectors to rework their accounting of the events that led to the death of the anarchist, during questioning, some weeks before. Suffice it to say, it's all complicated, and is based on some complicated real-life events that you can read about in the dramaturgical notes, but Fo's script points a satirical finger at the mess throughout, portraying the cops as inept but ultimately violent men whose interrogation tactics led to a man's tragic death.
Epp and the ensemble most of whom were also in A Doctor In Spite Of Himself and who display the obvious affection for each other and whip-fast timing of a group of performers who have worked together for years bring fresh energy and delight to Fo's script, and in a second-act, off-the-cuff moment (likely of his and Bayes' own creation), Epp strays from Fo's words to deliver a cutting, deeply serious rant about the ills of our own time, from climate change to Wall Street greed to Mitt Romney's dismissal of the 47%. And it's here that we get an even clearer sense of Fo's own outrage at this earlier era's hypocrisies, which were not just the fodder for comedy but evidence of human failures that deserved to be excoriated. (And surrounded by a Berkeley audience, needless to say, you can expect many hoots and much applause.)
Special props go to actor Allen Gilmore in the role of Pissani, for both his expert clowning, and a hilarious joke he delivers in the second act that had Epp and the rest of the cast quietly breaking and trying hide their laughter from the corners of the stage.
All told, complete with a terrific set design by Kate Noll, this take on The Accidental Death of an Anarchist is as breezy, uproarious, and meaningful as a political satire can be. David Mamet, take a lesson.
The Accidental Death of an Anarchist is playing through April 20. Get tickets here and remember to request the half-price discount if you're age 30 or under.
