Comedy, Abnormality, Irony: Methodologies Used in Accidental Death of an Anarchist Neeraj V Murali College

The anarchist is dead – this is perhaps the only ‘fact’ the text subscribes to throughout; everything else in the (performative) text is presented in a vaudevillesque fashion by bringing in a bizarre combination of different genres and techniques which induce instability and ambiguity. As the tragic flows into the comic while satire and irony man the boundaries, and as the text reeks of replete sexual imagery (at various points), it is difficult to detect any singularity in the narrative. And yet, the text voices a strong political statement through the very intermingling of techniques and genres; it is radical activism being presented in its turbulent performative aspect where the playwright employs activist intervention to protest against and correct the political (and social) injustices being meted out.

Though ‘Accidental Death of an Anarchist’ is about a specific event that occurred, it raises ahistorical (and atemporal) concerns about the oppressive (arbitrary?) functioning of the State and state apparatuses (both ISAs and RSAs) too. The political mileage scored by the text can be deciphered only if one were to look at what (and how) Fo seeks to present, since it is easier to interpret the play as a comic rendition of the...