The NODA review of our production of Dario Fo’s farce, Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay?
Thursday May 2017
Director: Grainne Murphy
Five actors, eight characters taking an ever popular Fo comedic script tinged with controversy and satire creating a hysterical, fast moving production. When frustration is at breaking point with inflation at an all-time high, struggling to survive wife Antonia leads a revolt in the local supermarket and loots the building and together with her friend Margherita try to hide the goods before their respective husbands and the police catch up with them. The play was originally set in Milan but this production is moved to a block of flats in London with accents to match. Concealing the goods with the aid of their ponchos, miracle confinements are used to fool hubbies and a sceptical police officer. The Pope, the pill, the feast of St Eulalia the patron saint of fertility all blamed for the pregnancies! The events that ensue lead to stashing the loot under the sofa, in cupboards, in the shed on Dad’s allotment, the dubious making of soup with strange ingredients, the eating of dog food, hiding in coffins, escaping the cuffs of ‘little red book’ officer, when Giovanni and Luigi are looting from a conveniently located jack-knifed lorry. Sounds ludicrous and I suppose it is, but it’s an amazingly funny comedy with real pathos that is both fast and furious and contains some choice language.
Full report here: Can’t Pay Won’t Pay Review
The full programme: Programme for Can’t Pay Won’t Pay