Theatre as Counter-Discourse: Disrupting Institutional Truth in Fo’s Accidental Death of an Anarchist

Abstract

This study presents a Foucauldian interpretation of Dario Fo’s Accidental Death of an Anarchist, focusing on the interplay of power and truth within modern institutional frameworks. Focusing on Michel Foucault’s theories of power and knowledge, disciplinary practices, and the genealogy of truth, this research paper investigates how the play critiques state institutions particularly the police and judiciary as mechanisms of ideological domination and producers of “official” narratives. The central character’s use of theatrical impersonation serves to disrupt authoritative discourses, reveals how truth is strategically constructed, manipulated for political ends. Through detailed textual analysis and theoretical engagement with Foucault’s works, especially Discipline and Punish and The Archaeology of Knowledge, this research highlights the irrationality and contradictions inherent in bureaucratic systems that assert objectivity while enacting systemic violence. Ultimately, this paper contends that Fo’s play operates as a form of theatrical dissent, using satire to confront institutional truth-making and to expose the performative and unstable nature of justice under authoritarian regimes.