1 February: Accidental Death of an Anachist

Firstly, many thanks to Rina for the lovely Fève Tiramisu! And congratulations to Daniele on becoming our Queen!

I think we all found last month's play, Death and the Maiden, a 'good read', leaving us with plenty of things to think about.

This month's play, Accidental Death of an Anachist, should also provide food for thought - although perhaps in a more light-hearted vein.

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The play is a farce based on the real-life events surrounding Italian railwayman and anarchist Giuseppe Pinelli, who fell – or was thrown – to his death from the fourth floor window of a Milan police station in 1969. Pinelli was accused of bombing a bank but was cleared of the charge. The events of the play, however, are fiction.

I will leave the play to unfold ... but there is an interesting factoid:  An actor Mark Blanco, who was cast in the lead role at a London fringe theatre, died in unexplained circumstances himself in December 2006 shortly before the production was about to open. Blanco fell to the ground from a balcony in Whitechapel, East London. His family said: "We absolutely do not believe that Mark committed suicide, or that his death was a simple accident." They continue to press for information on Blanco's last hours at the party from those who were present, including  former Libertines singer Pete Doherty.

I chose this play when the death of Fo, aged 90, was announced last October, and I thought you would all enjoy reading one by this Italian author who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1997.

The ECC did a very funny production of the play some years ago, and I hope we will be able to recapture the humour!

11 January - Death and the Maiden

Firstly, many thanks for the very kind gift you gave me in December, and my thanks to for the contributions made by Margaret and Isobel towards the edibles!

I hope you all had a very happy Christmas and that 2017 has started well for you.

My plans for being prepared for January have been thwarted, as I decided that the play I had proposed, Present Laughter, by Noel Coward, was actually not great shakes! Indeed, it was a wee bit dull!

And so I have chosen a play that is quite the other extreme of Coward!

Death and the Maiden is a dark 1990 play by Chilean playwright Ariel Dorfman. Dorfman was exiled for many years when Chile was under the dictatorship of General Pinochet, whose regime and the subsequent move towards democracy strongly influence this work - although the country in the play is never named.  This play has been performed world-wide, including in Chile, and adapted into a film by Roman Polanski.

When Dr. Roberto Miranda enters the lives of lawyer, Gerardo Escobar, and his wife, Paulina Salas, he raises memories that Paulina has hidden for many years.                                          

This is not a fun start to the year!  But I  believe it is a good play which, despite its sometimes forthright language, will get us all thinking and talking.  The themes of the play are many:

• Justice v Peace
• Civilisation v Depravity
• Past v Future
• Cycle of Violence
• Lies or Truth?
• Forgiveness
• Guilt or Innocence?

Schubert: Death and the Maiden

Schubert's 1817 quartet is referenced in the play and this piece, based on a poem by Matthias Claudius, is strongly linked with death.   The theme is a death knell that accompanies the song about the terror and comfort of death.

The Maiden:

"Oh! leave me! Prithee, leave me! thou grisly man of bone!

For life is sweet, is pleasant.

Go! leave me now alone!

Go! leave me now alone!"

Death:

"Give me thy hand, oh! maiden fair to see,

For I'm a friend, hath ne'er distress'd thee.

Take courage now, and very soon

Within mine arms shalt softly rest thee!"

You can listen to it here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fXYjSmR6Bw