NANDIPAT THEATRE GROUP: Mrityu-Na-Hatya

Mrityu-Na-Hatya

Synopsis of the play – One need not go long back in history. Only a few decades ago, the world was witness to the rise of the neo-left movement, beyond the traditional confines of the Communist. Establishment, and in developed, developing and backward countries alike. We all know how the movement shook up the socio-political life in our country. And we know how brutally the State machinery came down to crush it.

It was 1969. The venue: Milan, Italy. Sixteen people died of a bomb explosion. Predictably, the country’s left extremists were indicted. Some of them got arrested. Of them, Pineilli died while in prison. Before dying, he disclosed – to the police the manes of his Comrades-in-Arms. The case dragged on for ten long years. At the end which it was proved that the Fascists, including an agent of Italy’s secret police force, were responsible for the crime. The political and military bigwigs who had them on their payroll were all let off with a mere censure. Only petty criminals got punished.

The incident featured in Dario Fo’s immortal paly, Accidental Death of an Anarchist. The national and international media had meanwhile criticised against the left extremists for the massacre in Milan. Dario Fo’s group, La Commune, went through the police reports, the investigation papers presented a parallel case through their play.

Based though on a tragic incident, the play, ironically enough, won plaudits for its presentation ass an outright comedy. The audience was kept entertained with a display of a series of comical absurdities on the stage. As the tragic events unfolded, revealing the ugly face of State terrorism, their faces turned grim and their eyes spiteful and angry.

Dario Fo’s art lies in casting an explosive subject in a comic mould. An art, indeed, worthy of emulation. As for the State power and ruling class, they retain character in history-be it in Mila in Italy, or in British India, or in Pinochet’s Chile, or for that matter, in Kolkata during the Congress regime )may be, during the present times even ?). Our ‘comedy’ Mrityu-Na-Hatya(Death, or Murder?) speaks of all this and more.