The play was written by Dario Fo in response to a real event: a suspect under interrogation in the police building fell to his death from a fourth story window; the judge ruled the death accidental, causing a great deal of public outrage.
Playwright Fo is a Nobel prize laureate specializing in Commedia Del'Arte, the Italian tradition of physical comedy. Commedia is a very old style of theatre that relies on re-using certain characters, much in the same way as British pantomime
Whilst Anarchist is not strictly a Commedia play, it is possible to see elements of the tradition within the play: the character of the Maniac shares many traits with the standard fool charcter (sometimes known as Harlequin) and all the charcters are larger than life as with Commedia characters.
Despite the roots in Commedia, this play is a biting political satire of the corruption in fascist Italy, however, with a few minor tweaks to make some of the references more contemporary it feels like a very modern play, despite having been writen about twentyfive years ago. It is interesting that the Ketton Players are celebrating their twentyfifth anniversary this year and we are staging a play written the same year the group was formed!

Directed and produced by Steve Powter, assistant director Kriz Stiff, assistant producer Barbara Tyler.

Cast
The Maniac	Stuart Clarke
Bertozzo	Bavid Ryan
Constables	Sam Rice Wallis Gowers
Pissani	Ben Mason
Superintendent	Rob Gould
Feletti	Kara Gould
Staff	Dan Tooth Emily Ryan

Behind the scenes
prompt	Pam Lawrence
costumes	Hammond Hire
sound & lighting	Adrian Mason
production assistants	Emily Ryan, Dan Tooth
set construction	Mike Tyler