Hey! Luciani: The Life and Codex of John Paul I is a play written by Mark E. Smith

Mark E. Smith

Mark Edward Smith is the lead singer, lyricist, frontman, and only constant member of the English post-punk band The Fall.-Early life:...

, best known as the lead singer of the band The Fall. Described by its author as "a cross between Shakespeare and The Prisoner

The Prisoner

The Prisoner is a 17-episode British television series first broadcast in the UK from 29 September 1967 to 1 February 1968. Starring and co-created by Patrick McGoohan, it combined spy fiction with elements of science fiction, allegory and psychological drama.The series follows a British former...

", the play centres on the mysterious death of Pope John Paul I

Pope John Paul I

John Paul I , born Albino Luciani, , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and as Sovereign of Vatican City from 26 August 1978 until his death 33 days later. His reign is among the shortest in papal history, resulting in the most recent Year of Three Popes...

 in 1978.

Starring Smith and the performance artist Leigh Bowery

Leigh Bowery

Leigh Bowery was an Australian performance artist, club promoter, actor, pop star, model and fashion designer, based in London. Bowery is considered one of the more influential figures in the 1980s and 1990s London and New York art and fashion circles influencing a generation of artists and...

, Hey! Luciani: The Life and Codex of John Paul I ran for two weeks in December 1986 at Riverside Studios

Riverside Studios

Riverside Studios is a production studio, theatre and independent cinema on the banks of the River Thames in Hammersmith, London, England. It plays host to contemporary and international dramatic and dance performance, film, visual art exhibitions and television production.-History:In 1933, the...

, Hammersmith

Hammersmith

Hammersmith is an urban centre in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in west London, England, in the United Kingdom, approximately five miles west of Charing Cross on the north bank of the River Thames...

, west London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

. In the same month, The Fall released one of the songs from the play, "Hey! Luciani," as a single

Single (music)

In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...

.

Versions of other songs from the play have also been released as tracks on Fall albums:

• "Dktr. Faustus" (on Bend Sinister
  Bend Sinister (album)
  Bend Sinister is a 1986 album by The Fall, released on Beggars Banquet Records. It reached number 36 in the UK charts. Its title is taken from Vladimir Nabokov's novel Bend Sinister . The US version of the album was titled The "Domesday Pay-Off" Triad Plus!.It was the third and last Fall album to...
  
  , 1986)
• "Living Too Late" (single, featured on some formats of Bend Sinister, 1986)
• "Mark'll Sink Us", "Haf Found Bormann", "Sleep Debt Snatches" (b-sides to "There's A Ghost In My House", 1987, collected on 458489 B-Sides
  Compilation albums by The Fall
  British rock group The Fall have had a large number of compilation albums issued since the band's first releases in 1976.-Early years 1977–1983:...
  
  , 1990)