Urban terrorism? The suspension of basic civil liberties? Police torture of suspects, and subsequent coverups?

As disturbing recent events (e.g., the suicide bombings in London, abuse scandals at Abu Ghraib prison) will attest, these are rarely laughing matters.

Yet in his durable 1970 comedy, "Accidental Death of an Anarchist," set in an era when Italy was gripped by terrorism fears and police scandals, playwright Dario Fo dramatized such issues with a heavy dollop of satire and slapstick.

And in any worthy mounting of this much-traveled romp, the audience will chortle along as a wily clown (first played by Fo, and now in Seattle by Darragh Kennan) turns some Italian officials trying to conceal their violent chicanery into a crew of bumbling Keystone Kops.

To laugh along, you need to accept that the buffoon Kennan portrays so dexterously in Strawberry Theatre Workshop's production is a self-described "histromaniac" — a compulsive imposter who delights in quick-changes of identity. And that he cons frantic police officials into believing he's an eminent psychiatrist one minute, a supreme court judge the next.

Nailing the impish spirit and dizzying tempo of Fo's very Italian farces on an American stage is never a piece of cake. Fortunately, Strawberry Theatre Workshop's "Accidental Death of an Anarchist" is better at it than a less-coherent stab at Fo's "Archangels Don't Play Pinball" by Capitol Hill Arts Center (CHAC) was last spring.

Gabriel Baron's staging of "Accidental Death" takes a little time to rev up. And he should remind his actors that they don't need to shout to be heard on the small staging area at Richard Hugo House.

But for the most part, Baron's blocking is rigorously goofy and spry. And he's smartly encouraged his cast to add their own zesty ad-libs for dashes of topical timeliness.

Baron, a gifted comic actor himself, clearly learned a few tricks about doing Fo while playing the lead in CHAC's "Archangels." But he and his limber actors also have a sturdier, more cohesive script to work with here.

"Accidental Death" was inspired by actual events in Italy. After a series of fatal bombings in 1969, the police blamed left-wing terrorism and made sweeping arrests of socialist and anarchist activists. One arrested anarchist, a railway worker named Giuseppe Pinelli, died after several days of interrogation when he fell from a window in police headquarters. A coverup of police brutality was charged. (In 2001, three neo-fascist activists were convicted of the bombings.)

From this tale, Fo fashioned a focused, zany romp that questions not only police tactics and government repression, but also the nature of identity itself. And it has since been around the globe, as apropos in South Africa as in Chile and Romania.

Though he needs to tone down the volume, Kennan is a terrific scamp and a madcap mimic who revels in his character's genius for improvisational identity. And the cops he plays like a string quartet are portrayed with apt befuddlement, paranoia, rage and mad absurdity by M.J. Sieber, Michael Patten, Gavin Cummins and David Goldstein. The cast is rounded out by Rhonda J. Soikowski, as a skeptical reporter trying to get the real scoop. And a nod to Greg Carter, whose perfect set is a nightmare of file cabinets.

Misha Berson: mberson@seattletimes.com