Review Roundup: ACCIDENTAL DEATH OF AN ANARCHIST Opens On The West End

Read reviews for the West End transfer of Accidental Death of an Anarchist, adapted by Tom Basden, and directed by Daniel Raggett at the Theatre Royal Haymarket.

The cast includes Daniel Rigby (Maniac), Tony Gardner (Superintendent Curry), Tom Andrews (Detective Daisy), Mark Hadfield (Inspector Burton), Ro Kumar (Agent Joseph), and Ruby Thomas (Fi Phelan). 

An Anarchist has fallen to his death from a police station window. The question is: did he jump or was he thrown? 

As the police attempt to avoid yet another scandal, a mysterious imposter is arrested and brought in for questioning. Seizing the chance to put on a show, he leads the officers in an ever more ridiculous reconstruction of their official account, hilariously exposing the cover-ups, corruption, and profound idiocy at the heart of the police. 

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Cindy Marcolina, BroadwayWorld: Only so many plays remain as directly and unfortunately relevant to the failure of the justice system as Dario Fo and Franca Rame’s Accidental Death of an Anarchist. Premiered in 1970 and loosely based on real events and people, it saw the writers being sued over 40 times when it debuted. An exploration of the corruption of law enforcement and their propensity for bending the facts to their benefit, the comedy is a perfect fit in the current political climate.

Dominic Cavendish, The Telegraph: Accidental Death of an Anarchist: never has this satire on police brutality felt so bitingly relevant. In the wake of the Casey report, this take on Fo's play is acutely topical – and its star, Daniel Rigby, delivers a comic tour de force. 4/5

Greg Stewart, Theatre Weekly: Accidental Death of an Anarchist has its audience howling for about ninety percent of the running time; sometimes resulting in us missing the next joke because the laughter was so loud.  But when it comes to getting it’s point across, it never fails to hit the mark.  The Maniac, and the play itself, pulls no punches when discussing the failings of the police, and by extension, the establishment, resulting in a ferociously funny play that will send shivers down spines at Scotland Yard.

Siobhan Murphy, The Stage: The references – from the resignation honours list to the Public Order Act and TS Eliot – come thick and fast, and the frenzied energy doesn’t flag. Best of all, in maintaining the Maniac’s belief that life is a game and rules are for suckers, it allows us, for two hours, to laugh at the bleakest of situations.

Clive Davis, The Times:  If the harassed souls at the Metropolitan Police press department are planning an outing to the theatre, I somehow doubt this revival of the vintage Dario Fo-Franca Rame will be at the top of their list. While the original version, now half a century old, was inspired by the Italian authorities’ response to a terrorist bomb attack, Tom Basden’s supercharged adaptation — which premiered in Sheffield last year — belongs very much in the present day, adding no end of references to the Met’s string of recent, very public failures.

Jessie Thompson, The Independent: Sleeper hits aren’t usually this noisy. After well-received runs at the Sheffield Crucible and the Lyric Hammersmith, Tom Basden’s gloriously unruly adaptation of Dario Fo’s Accidental Death of an Anarchist is careering into the Theatre Royal Haymarket. In director Daniel Raggett’s high-octane production, Daniel Rigby gives an astonishing performance, combining rapid-fire delivery with an instant rapport with the audience. Factor in a sharp script that drips with merciless satire, and what you have is the most daring and original show to arrive in the West End in recent memory.

Tim Bano, Evening Standard: Then amid the rattling monologuing of the Maniac, Basden slips in another of those statistics about the Met. They’re jarring, these suddenly solemn lines, but their cumulative power is devastating. Nor are the police the only recipients of Basden’s ire: the right-wing government, the ineffective left, lazy journalism… Basden piles up the corpses of post-truth society. Police brutality was never so funny – but if we didn’t laugh, we’d have to cry.

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