So, a Guy Walks Out of a Window ...

Kevin Isola wasn’t familiar with “Accidental Death of an Anarchist” when he was offered a part in the ’s production of Dario Fo’s play. But all he needed to accept an offer to star in the play was his character’s name.

“When Bonnie [Monte, the Shakespeare Theatre’s artistic director] very graciously offered the role to me, she said the character I would be playing is called The Maniac, and I said yes without reading the script,” Isola said. “I figured, ‘That’s got to be good.’”

Isola isn’t the only person involved in the production (running at the Shakespeare Theatre in Madison, Aug. 3 through 28) who didn’t know the play. Director Paul Mullins said he and Monte were talking about the theater’s August presentation should be when she mentioned “Accidental Death of an Anarchist.”

“And I said, ‘I don’t know it; I’ve never seen it nor read it,’” Mullins said. “Then I did [read it] and said, ‘Yes I want to direct this.’ I’m thrilled by the play, especially because it’s unlike anything I’ve ever done, I’m sure of that.”

Fo’s comedy, written in 1970, is based on the actual incident involving an Italian bombing suspect named Giuseppe Pinelli who police claimed fell out of a window at police station in Milan, but who was widely believed to be thrown out of that window.

“He was thrown out of a four-story building. The police said he jumped of his own accord and there are all sorts of riots in response to that,” Isola said of the play. “My character comes in and he’s a character who’s made 16 trips to various insane asylums all over Italy. He sort of uses his insanity to give him license to sort of help unravel the truth of what actually occurred in these events.”

The “accidental” death of the title has already happened as the play opens and Inspector Bertozzo (played by Philip Goodwin) is questioning the Maniac, who’s under arrest for posing as a psychiatrist, seeing patients and charging them way too much (he defends himself by claiming that’s what psychiatrists do). Soon the Maniac is using his penchant for disguises to get involved in, and influence, the case of the anarchist.

The cast also includes Edmond Genest as the Superintendent, Andrew Weems as the Inspector in the Sports Jacket, Jeffrey M. Bender as the Constable and Kristie Dale Sanders as journalist Maria Feletti.

Isola said Fo uses various Italian storytelling techniques, including commedia dell’arte and farce, but that in rehearsing the play, the cast and crew have discovered that those comic elements shouldn’t interfere with the clarity of the story.

“With a play like this, the story is the most important aspect, certainly, and it packs quite a punch,” Isola said. “So we didn’t want to leave any of that, particularly with today’s audience.”

Therefore, the comedy will come out of the story.

“There’s nothing that’s sort of meta about any aspect of it. There’s no superfluous farcical elements. Everything that was put in there that we thought might be worth a laugh is there because it came out of the story,” he said.

Mullins said the strength of the play is that it is one with a message written by a great storyteller and comedy writer, which creates a mix of the ridiculous with a powerful, political message.

“It was a moment of someone in a theater saying, ‘We’re going to talk about this thing that is not being talked about. It’s being talked around in the press and it’s being talked around in all of the outlets to news getting to people, but no one’s actually saying what happened and what is going on and why don’t we know,’” the director said.

The mix of the political and the funny creates challenges, as Mullins describes the play as part farce, part slapstick and part mystery.

“It is many things and (we have to find) a balance of letting all of them have their due, in that parts of it are quite serious and straightforward, other parts are completely ridiculous and other parts are saying ‘Here’s what we do in a society where we talk about free speech, what do we pay for that,’” he said.

Mullins and Isola have both worked at the Shakespeare Theatre several times—Isola as an actor, Mullins as an actor and director—but had never collaborated before this show. Mullins said he and Monte immediately thought of Isola, whose comedic talents have been used to great effect at the theater in productions like “Around the World in 80 days” a few years ago.

“When Bonnie brought the play up and we were talking about people who could play this part, he was the first person we talked about and I’m so happy he’s doing it,” Mullins said. “He’s a great spirit and a great clown and a great actor, so these things all came quite handy in this play.”

“Accidental Death of an Anarchist” will be performed at the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey on the campus of Drew University in Madison, Aug. 3 through 24. Tickets start at $32. For information, call 973-408-5600 or go to ShakespeareNJ.org.