In 1969, Giuseppe Pinelli fell to his death from a fourth story window of a Police station in Milan. This event formed the starting point for a work of fiction by Dario Fo, a satire that deals with police corruption and collusion between the police and state to hide the events that caused the death. Dario Fo is an Italian playwright who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1997. His work was later translated to English, with the setting altered to Britain in 2002 by Simon Nye (Men Behaving Badly). AC productions have altered the text again to set it in modern Ireland, an act AC productions described as ‘an attempt to remain true to both the translator and Dario Fo’s version’. There are many comparisons between Ireland and Italy in terms of our attitude to corruption and the actions of our politicians, so it is no surprise it sits well in its new setting.

Patrick O’Donnell plays a man with a rare mental illness, who spends his time impersonating people of different professions. He has just been arrested for impersonating a psychiatrist, and is left alone in a Garda station. He finds the file on the death of the Anarchist, and realises that a new Judge is due to arrive to re-open the case of the Anarchist, he seizes his opportunity to impersonate the Judge, and to tie the policemen in a series of knots. He teases apart their stories surrounding the death and toys with them, as it becomes clear that their version of events are seriously flawed.

The pace of the play is blistering, as we are literally left in the hands of a mad man, and Patrick O’Donnell’s performance is key to this production. It’s another impressive display from O’Donnell, who is charismatic and nicely unhinged in this unusual part. There are elements of farce and physical comedy as the bumbling Gardai try to battle wits with the Judge. Along the way, there are references to (and songs about) austerity, Enda Kenny and even bottles of alcohol with Shell Corrib Gas labels on them. This has the feel of a contemporary piece of satire, that attacks the corruption at the heart of Irish society, even if it is based on a 30 year old Italian play, This is an impressive production, which is largely well acted and combines humour with some interesting insights.

An Accidental Death of an Anarchist by AC Productions runs until September 7th in the New Theatre.

This production features Patrick O’ Donnell, Paul Kealyn, Neill Fleming, Dagmar Döring, Rory Mullen, and Paul Elliot.

Directed by Peter Reid

Produced by Alex Cusack