Accidental Death of an Anarchist

Over 50 years after it’s premier, Tom Basden thinks Accidental Death of an Anarchist still has something to say about modern-day policing.

“If God were British, there wouldn’t be a judgement day, there’d be an eternal fucking enquiry,” Daniel Rigby’s character, the Maniac, says in Tom Basden’s update of Dario Fo’s Accidental Death of an Anarchist. “Inquiry into inquiries into inquiries for as long as it takes for everyone to destroy the evidence and change careers.”

Fo’s original, first performed in 1970, was inspired by a train driver with anarchist leanings found dead beneath the open window of a fourth-floor interrogation room. Fo used court transcripts – from a libel case the Milan police brought against a left-wing newspaper – to recreate the fumbled lies and cover-ups of inept cops.

Using Fo’s script as a template, Rigby’s Maniac is about to be released from a London police station when he discovers a judge is on the way to launch another inquiry into the death of the eponymous radical and impersonates the investigator, dragging the hapless officers through brutally stupid attempts to justify their violence.

Basden’s script – as well as Rigby’s performance – carry the same furious, outraged energy of a punk anthem with the savage satirical jokes of early 1980s stand-up. There are references to dodgy WhatsApp groups, racial profiling, Sarah Everard, spycops and policemen taking selfies with dead bodies.

The updated lines are mainly at the expense of the Met. “This one is concerning a recent death in police custody,” a superintendent is told. “Might need to narrow it down…” he replies. But Rigby’s line about the Home Secretary – “she couldn’t give a shit. She’s down in Dover with her BB gun trying to pop any dinghies crossing the channel” – gets one of the biggest laughs. So necessary is this revival that its original run gained five-star reviews in the Spectator and the Daily Mail as well as the Guardian.

So what? As this production ends, startling statistics are projected onto the stage including the number of Metropolitan Police officers with multiple misconduct charges: 1,803. Number fired: 13. The closing stat reads: “Since 1990 there have been more than 1,862 deaths in police custody in the UK.” When the play was first performed in Sheffield in autumn 2022, that number was 1,850.

It’s a farce: Basden worked with UK charity Inquest and families of men who died in Met Police custody. Marcia Rigg, whose brother Sean died in Brixton police station, has turned down filmmakers because they haven’t understood the ridiculousness of the police. Sean was arrested for stealing his own passport and she has seen CCTV footage of officers walking her unconscious brother from their van into the station by guiding his legs with their legs to pretend he’s fine. The inquest found that her brother’s death was accidental but that “the actions of the officers more than minimally contributed to his death.” The officers involved were compensated for the inconvenience of being suspended on full pay during the investigation that cleared them.

Political sell out: This year the West End is filled with political theatre as never before – from the recently departed Best of Enemies through Spitting Image, Patriots and the anti-gun revival of Oklahoma. Indeed, the commercial theatre capital – traditionally home to big musicals for coach parties – has politics baked into hits like Hamilton, Six and Cabaret. “There is a younger generation of theatre-goers who want to see theatre that has a political position,” Basden explains. “There’s been a change in focus – the low hanging fruit of ‘isn’t Trump an arsehole’ satire doesn’t excite anyone. I’m excited by satire that exposes things in society I take for granted and there are lots of issues that are close to an emergency right now.”