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Dario Fo: a theatrical jester who made us laugh in the face of tragedy
-Michael Billington


What is satire? Perhaps we know the answer to it as we might have read it at various stages of our life. But why do we read satire? Experts would say that satire is created to raise awareness about certain issues, states of affairs, to put message across to the people using the elements of satire such as irony, humor, hyperbole, sarcasm, exaggeration and others. The idea is to create a universe which may seem to allude to the real-life situation without explicitly mentioning it. And what about its impact, is it any different than any straightaway commentary or reporting about the things which might be going haywire?


What about the artist who creates such satirical art? Why does he infuse his literary energy in the inception of a problem or situation to produce such art? Is it just limited to drawing people’s attention to the issue or raising awareness about it as if an artist has some moral responsibility to do? Aren’t the artists supposed to be free from any sort of moral obligations or political leanings but being human how they can be? Nonetheless, what could be the personal motive of an artist to produce satire? Perhaps, it has to do something with their artistic expression itself. Possibly, this artistic mode of expression gives them the breathing space which they may require when they feel a choking sensation rising up in their throats and feel an impulse to throw out because of things which are going on as they should not be. So, is it produced just out of artistic expression or moral responsibility or political leanings, or perhaps because of all, and probably that makes the artists humans and not gods.




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Accidental death of an anarchist satires about one such case from the history of mankind wherein a railway employee was made responsible of bombings before him losing himself to the death and later being absolved of the charges as well. Dario Fo has been able to create an atmosphere of dark humor wherein each revelation strikes like a dagger in your heart without giving you any respite from its momentum. The play revolves around Maniac, a seemingly out of the world character who can pull off many personas with ease. He tricks the policemen into oblong and self-contradictory discourses which finally made them to give in and blew away the cover involving the death of an anarchist.


The readers or the audiences of the play are treated with a dose of humor and irony throughout the play. It talks about the ability of the playwright to move the narrative forward scene by scene through regular bouts of sardonic humor. The revelations of the play are brought to the light gradually, layer by layer with undertones of dark and humor which sows the seeds of thought in the brain of audience to force it to contemplate about the actual situation and to act towards overturning it. The subtle but ironic humor surreptitiously gets under our skin and forces you to ponder upon our society, as to how the various constituents of a society are deceived and their images are used for the interest of those in power, and who ironically run the social engine. The play is a great reminder that political theatre is not unharmonious and desolate as it is often supposed to be. Dario Fo also sways away the notions typically associated with left-wing theatre and affirms with authority that it should not be necessarily a carping groan.


The play leaves you with multiple endings ranging from a reformist attitude, to solve the problems through laws and rules in vogue, to the radical actions which seem to be aligned with the other extreme end of the spectrum. The possible repercussions of those endings are also shown to the audience and thereby the onus is put on the audience, who is entrusted with the moral responsibility to decide and choose and thereby ruminate over the possible outcomes. There are obvious elements of metafiction infused in the play as you expect from Dario Fo making it all the more intriguing and in a way compelling the audience to take part in it and thereby becoming morally conscious and responsible of the outcomes.


Perhaps we can say now with authority that the satires help us to create a sort of defense mechanism to confront reality which otherwise may be unbearable. It helps us to counter the unpleasant reality and see the world naked in its stark actuality. The alternate reality created through the mode of satire seems to parody the intended reality in a way to send shock waves through our consciousness to sensitize ourselves of its vagaries and probably forcing us to think how it can be improved and how could we contribute towards it. And perhaps also to protect the artist from going insane by venting out his exasperating frustration and bitterness to sway his discontent and resentment through the artistic pen of liberation which acts as a savior in the universe of havoc and mayhem.





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