Accidental Death Of An Anarchist

Accidental Death of an Anarchist begins with The Fool and The Sergeant in a “normal room” on the second floor of the Milan Police Headquarters. The room has an ordinary desk, large cabinet, some chairs, a typewriter, and two doors. The Sergeant, careful to avoid being seen from the outside, peers out an open window at a mob of protesters below. The Fool, referred to as Suspect for the majority of Act I, Scene 1, notices that the demonstrators are very tense. The Sergeant claims they have been incited by union protestors, who have been complaining about losing their housing and jobs. The Fool isn’t satisfied with that answer and questions why union protesters would be at police headquarters. The Sergeant believes that protestors always demonstrate outside of police headquarters because the police are caught between the workers and the business owners. He adds that only one week has passed since an anarchist jumped to his death from a window to avoid further interrogation. The Fool asks if the window The Sergeant was looking out was the same window the anarchist jumped from, but it is not; that window is directly above them, two floors up on the fourth floor.

Inspector Bertozzo enters the room hurriedly. He is running behind schedule after a chaotic morning. He is angry that the window is open and orders The Sergeant to close it immediately. The Fool tries to cover for The Sergeant by commenting on how stuffy he thought the room was, but he is quickly dismissed by Inspector Bertozzo. Inspector Bertozzo pages through The Fool’s file and notes that The Fool has, as of today, been arrested a total of 12 times for impersonating a variety of officials, including surgeons, a bishop, a naval engineer, and, as of today, a psychiatrist.

While The Fool has been arrested 11 times previously, he has never been charged, and his record is clean. Inspector Bertozzo promises that it won’t be clean once he’s done with The Fool. He adds that The Fool could go to prison for impersonating a psychiatrist under false pretenses.

The Fool argues that that would be true if he were “sane,” but he is “licensed to be crazy” (11). Therefore, The Fool won’t be charged. He shares his clinical file with Inspector Bertozzo and The Sergeant. The file shows that The Fool has been committed to a psychiatric hospital 16 times over the past 20 years. He has been diagnosed with “Histromania,” a condition named after the Latin for actor, meaning he has a compulsion to act out roles. He reasons his compulsion to act in real life is why he can’t work in a theater—a good thing, since he doesn’t have any money to pay fellow actors. Instead, he enlists typical, everyday people to perform alongside him without their knowledge. The Fool explains that his history of being in psychiatric hospitals gave him enough knowledge of psychology to offer an accurate diagnosis. He charged 20,000 lira to diagnose a patient with schizophrenia, and he explains that the high price was so that the patient and his family would trust him and the diagnosis. After all, if his prices were too low, they would doubt they had received quality care.

Inspector Bertozzo accuses The Fool of giving fraudulent care by posing as a doctor despite not being certified as one. The two argue over whether The Fool misrepresented himself. The Fool points to a carefully placed period and comma on his business card, arguing that he was using the title of psychiatrist as a descriptor, not a job title. He claims that anyone familiar with the Italian language, syntax, and grammar would know that. Inspector Bertozzo is baffled by the argument, but The Fool offers to tutor him in grammar and offers The Sergeant a discount. Inspector Bertozzo tells The Fool to “[q]uit putting me on!” (14). He believes The Fool might really have a condition that forces him to play different roles, and states that even being “insane” is a role The Fool is playing. The Fool briefly examines Inspector Bertozzo, claiming that he is the inspector’s “sanity.” Inspector Bertozzo tells him off, ordering The Fool to sit down so they can start the report.

Excitedly, The Fool informs Inspector Bertozzo and The Sergeant that he is a certified typist and is ready to type the report. Inspector Bertozzo threatens to handcuff The Fool, who recites a section of the criminal code that bars police from handcuffing those with mental illness. Inspector Bertozzo doubts The Fool’s understanding of the law.

The Fool explains that he was taught many types of Law (Roman, modern, Justinian, ecclesiastic, Frederician, Lombard, and Greek Orthodox) from a genius court reporter in one of the institutions he had been sent to. Inspector Bertozzo notes that impersonating a lawyer was never in The Fool’s file. The Fool explains that he has no interest in being a lawyer and would rather be a Judge. He waxes poetic about the judicial occupation, noting that when most people are retiring, a judge is just starting their career. Inspector Bertozzo orders The Fool to be quiet and pushes him back into his seat. The Fool reacts dramatically, threatening to bite Inspector Bertozzo, and The Sergeant and then rattles off another part of the criminal code, stating if they were to react using force against a “defenseless and disabled individual incapable of taking responsibility” (17), they’d lose their pension and be sentenced to prison for six to nine years. The Fool then assures the concerned Sergeant that he would not be stripped of his rank. Inspector Bertozzo orders The Sergeant to handle The Fool. The Sergeant worries about being bitten, and The Fool says he also has rabies. Inspector Bertozzo invokes Jesus Christ, and The Fool states that he played Christ last week. Frustrated, Inspector Bertozzo offers to let The Fool go if he stays on his best behavior. The Fool begs to be kept in police custody, where he feels protected from people and cares. He offers to help make other suspects talk by making nitroglycerin suppositories. When Inspector Bertozzo reacts with even greater annoyance, The Fool threatens to throw himself out the window and blame it on him. A Policeman enters and, on Inspector Bertozzo’s orders, locks the window. The Fool pivots and says he’ll throw himself down the stairs. Inspector Bertozzo tells The Policeman to stop and then orders him to lock the door and put the key in a lock box. Cutting into Inspector Bertozzo’s orders, The Fool demands The Policeman throw the key out the window or swallow it. The Policeman attempts to obey all the orders until Inspector Bertozzo snaps, takes the key, and tries to kick The Fool out before he, too, is committed to a psychiatric hospital. The Fool says they could be roommates. Inspector Bertozzo yells at The Fool and shoves him out the door. The Policeman reminds Inspector Bertozzo that he has a meeting in Mr. Bellati’s office, and that he is now five minutes late, too. Inspector Bertozzo, The Policeman, and The Sergeant exit.

A moment later, The Fool returns, apologizing for his actions. He sees no one in the room and reclaims his clinical file and prescription list. He finds his criminal citation and rips it up. He then starts to look through other citations and rips those up as well, effectively “pardoning” each “criminal” at random until he finds one that he deems to be guilty and leaves that one alone. The Fool finds a file about a judicial inquiry and another with an order to file the transcript of the judicial inquiry. The phone rings, and The Fool answers, posing as Inspector Bertozzo’s secretary. He realizes the person on the line is from the fourth floor and is The Investigator rumored to have defenestrated the anarchist a week ago.

The fool paraphrases what he is hearing from the other end of the line, apparently for the benefit of the audience. A Supreme Court judge is being sent from Rome to investigate the death of the anarchist. The initial investigation was closed and “filed away,” but now, due to public pressure, the matter is being reopened. The Fool claims that Bertozzo is there with him, laughing about the whole thing. Calling himself “Inspector Anghiari,” The Fool continues to rile up The Investigator over the phone, blowing “razzberries” and claiming it’s Bertozzo. He pivots the conversation to what the investigator called about: He is to make a copy of the order to file away the investigation into the anarchist’s death and get it delivered to the fourth floor along with copies of the judicial transcripts. He continues to mock The Investigator, likening him to a warden of a concentration camp. The Fool claims to know the judge that is coming to look over the files and audit them, saying the judge is named Antonio A. Antonio, the same name The Fool used when posing as a psychiatrist. The Fool says that Inspector Bertozzo has just made another funny joke: As soon as this judge is through with his audit, The Investigator will be sent to “the smallest backwater town in the pit of Calabria” (22). The Investigator is apparently displeased, and The Fool hangs up, blowing one last razzberry “from both of us” (22) meaning both himself and Bertozzo.

Now aware of the judicial inquiry and investigation into The Anarchist’s death, the fool begins to get into character as a judge. He excitedly develops the character by determining how he would physically embody the judge as well as speak. The Fool finds some important documents and takes an overcoat and hat from the coat rack.

Inspector Bertozzo enters and sees The Fool but doesn’t immediately recognize him. Inspector Bertozzo greets The Fool and asks if he was looking for someone. The Fool replies that he came back for his files, and Inspector Bertozzo recognizes The Fool and orders him out. The Fool asks if everyone is “neurotic” in the Police Headquarters, mentioning there was another officer in a turtleneck looking to punch Inspector Bertozzo. Inspector Bertozzo again tries to kick The Fool out. The Fool warns Inspector Bertozzo to avoid a police officer or to duck when he sees him. Inspector Bertozzo yells insults at The Fool, then realizes that The Fool has stolen his coat and hat. He orders The Policeman to chase after The Fool. The Policeman is interrupted by The Investigator, arriving just off stage. Inspector Bertozzo greets the off-stage Investigator warmly. The Investigator, with only his arm showing, punches Inspector Bertozzo. The Fool sticks his head out of the doorway, and the scene ends with him exclaiming to Inspector Bertozzo that he warned him.

Act I, Scene 2 begins with the set being changed. A stage direction indicates that “if possible, the scenery outside the office should be rolled upwards” (25) to create the appearance that the office itself is moving up. Most of the furniture and set dressing stay the same, simply rearranged to suggest the change in location from the second floor to the fourth. In addition to what was in the “normal room” of Act I, Scene 1, this new room contains a large portrait of the president. The Fool stands with his back to the door as Captain Pissani and The Officer enter. Captain Pissani asks The Officer if he knows who The Fool is, but The Officer is clueless. He knows only that The Fool ran into the office and demanded to speak to Captain Pissani and The Chief. Captain Pissani, continually massaging his right hand, approaches The Fool and asks him what he wants. The Fool, acting as a judge, zeroes in on the way Captain Pissani is rubbing his hand. Bulldozing over Captain Pissani’s attempts to ascertain his identity, The Fool guesses aloud that Captain Pissani has a “nervous tic.” Frustrated by The Fool’s antics, Captain Pissani slams his hand on the table. His outburst only confirms to The Fool that he was right. He also accuses Captain Pissani of having punched someone recently. Captain Pissani angrily demands that The Fool take his hat off and identify himself. The Fool asks Captain Pissani and The Officer to close the window, as the draft will bother him once he’s removed his hat.

The Fool introduces himself as “Dr. Antonio A. Antonio, first counsel of the High Court” (27). He points out the specific syntax and punctuation to Captain Pissani, confusing him. The Fool asks who informed Captain Pissani of his arrival, and Captain Pissani half answers before The Fool cuts him off again. The Fool, aware that he has the upper hand, demands that Captain Pissani bring The Chief to him, no matter how busy he may be.

The Chief arrives, infuriated at Captain Pissani’s impertinence in demanding his attention. The Fool chimes in, belittling Captain Pissani right along with The Chief. The Fool insinuates that The Chief was formerly director of a concentration camp. The Chief appears frightened—suggesting that the accusation may have hit home—but The Fool dismisses it as a “ridiculous idea” (32). Pissani eventually introduces The Fool as a judge, and The Chief is embarrassed over his initial behavior. The Fool directs The Chief to act out the events reported about the anarchist’s death. The Fool asks if the interrogation started with The Chief explaining the “serious circumstantial evidence against him” (32). The Chief confirms it. The Fool asks The Chief what “raptus” meant in the context of the report. The Chief and Captain Pissani both state they meant it as a violent anxiety that overcame a rational man (the anarchist) during the interrogation, causing him to jump out of the window. The Fool is determined to understand how the anarchist reached the state of “raptus,” eventually deducing that Captain Pissani and The Chief, without any actual evidence, attempted to blame the anarchist for recent terrorist attacks at the Agricultural Bank and the Monument to the Unknown soldier. They had initially arrested the anarchist for planting bombs at a railway, as he was the only known anarchist who worked for the railroad. Off and on throughout this section, The Fool refers to the anarchist as The Railroad Worker.

It is revealed that The Chief and Captain Pissani threatened the anarchist’s job; The Fool explains that, ironically, anarchists love the security and peace that comes from their jobs, and threatening that security would certainly cause a feeling of “raptus.” The Chief and Captain Pissani vehemently deny The Fool’s implication that they might have caused the anarchist’s suicide. The Fool cuts them off and pushes on with his deductions. Captain Pissani details how he informed the anarchist that his friend had confessed to planting bombs at the bank in Milan, at which point the anarchist had turned pale and asked for a cigarette.

The Fool jumps ahead, alleging that this was when the anarchist leaped out the window to his death. However, Captain Pissani corrects him. The Chief looks at the file The Fool has and tells him that it is an old draft and rewrites were made. The Fool continues with the rewritten draft of the interrogation transcript. The Chief explains that the anarchist’s alibi for the bombing was falling apart, claiming that his suicide proves his guilt. The Fool reiterates that there was no concrete evidence, noting that The Captain even referred to the anarchist, in the report, as a “good kid.” The Chief admits they made a mistake, and The Fool lays into The Chief and Captain Pissani, stating that they could be held responsible for inciting the anarchist’s suicide.

The Chief protests The Fool’s accusation, insisting that the police are justified in using tricks and traps while interrogating suspects. The Fool begins to browbeat both Captain Pissani and The Chief, threatening their jobs and reputations. He states that the Italian Government will use Captain Pissani and The Chief as scapegoats to appease the Italian people, who are angry at public corruption. The Fool continues describing the dark fate that awaits them. They beg The Fool for advice and The Fool suggests they throw themselves out of the window. He starts shoving Captain Pissani and The Chief to the window, stating there is no hope for them. Captain Pissani and The Chief call for help. The Officer runs into the room and The Fool immediately stops pushing them. He explains he was illustrating what the effects of “raptus” are and how easy it is to get caught up in the moment. Captain Pissani and The Chief admit they were on the verge of jumping.

The Fool sets The Officer, Captain Pissani, and The Chief at ease. Everything that he predicted would happen was imaginary, there is no way the government would attack its own police force. The Fool was only illustrating how their testimony and character would be picked apart at court. The group continues acting out the events leading to the anarchist’s death. The rewritten transcript states that the police “tricks” happened at eight at night instead of midnight (as originally written), but the anarchist’s death is still recorded as having occurred around midnight. This detail could not be changed, because a reporter was among the witnesses and made a note of the time. The Fool then questions the legitimacy of the “raptus”: four hours would have passed between the emotional and psychological manipulation and the suicide. The Fool and The Chief argue about keeping the “raptus” in the report. The Chief claims that the “raptus” was inevitable and had nothing to do with the police’s actions. The Fool pretends to go along with this interpretation; he is on the side of the police and even claims to be a collaborator in their efforts to escape suspicion. Glad to have a powerful ally in the Italian courts, Captain Pissani and The Chief agree to let The Fool further edit the first two versions of the transcript. In order to throw off any suspicion of corruption, He makes a point of not writing a new version but rather strengthening what they already have.

The Fool continues to direct the Police as if they were actors, coaching their responses to his questions as they “improve” the report. They consider how the police might have attempted to change the anarchist’s mood after their intense interrogation. The Officer claims he gave the anarchist a piece of gum. The Fool pushes The Chief and Captain Pissani to state that they were in the room when The Officer gave the anarchist the gum. In fact, The Fool has The Chief claim he put his hand on the anarchist’s shoulder and Captain Pissani gave the anarchist a “friendly smack” like railroad workers do. While both The Chief and Captain resist these rewrites and directions at first, they slowly come around to the idea. The Fool has Captain Pissani reminisce about his childhood and how he had a soft spot for railroad workers because of his toy train. The Officer attests to the smacks happening. Then, The Fool states that the police and the anarchist had created such a strong friendship that they spontaneously sang “The World is our Homeland” (an anarchist hymn). The Chief balks at the suggestion, but The Fool argues it makes him look warm and sympathetic, something he desperately needs help with. Act I concludes with The Fool, The Chief, Captain Pissani, and The Officer singing together. Lights in other houses around the station turn on as the police sing more loudly and proudly.