CAN'T PAY? WON'T PAY! To 23 February.
Oldham.
CAN’T PAY? WON’T PAY!
by Dario Fo translated by Lino Pertile adapted by Bill Colvill & Robert Walker.
Coliseum Theatre To 23 February 2008.
Tue-Thu; Sat 7.30pm Fri 8pm Mat 23 Feb 2.30pm.
Runs 2hr 15min One interval.
TICKETS: 0161 624 2829.
www.coliseum.org.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 16 February.
Not for Conservative – even less Liberal Democrat – gatherings; a gloriously-revived farce.
Is this international worker solidarity? What else would make Dario Fo's 1974 play, with its realistic urban setting, farcical happenings, political statement and direct address to the audience, work so well as a northern English comedy?
It’s very much rooted in seventies Italy, reacting to Catholicism’s still-recent ban on birth control and an unstable society where governments were as likely to fall as prices were to rise. And where Eurocommunism and trade unions were seen as so respectably moderate they were ineffectual.
So it’s hardly surprising housewives Antonia and Margherita, subsisting against inflation and uncomprehending husbands, should take advantage of disturbances to come home from the supermarket with bags of food they’d not exactly paid for.
Fo throws in a Chairman Mao-quoting policeman and a tenacious right-wing detective, but the women’s real job is to conceal the theft from heir husbands, Howard Chadwick’s stolidly law-abiding Giovanni and Phil Rowson’s stylishly dim Luigi.
The increasingly frantic, outlandish action involves a pretend pregnancy, a dubious saint and an inflatable inspector. In many productions it’s amusing but the laughter’s a bit effortful. Not this time. Kevin Shaw’s dexterous revival is frequently laugh-outloud funny, thanks to its pinpoint pacing and comic marking of each moment of character stress.
Nancy Surman’s set creates a realistic, bog-standard flat, with cheap furniture, loud wallpaper and bland painting, then subverts the reality with ducks flying from wall to proscenium arches, the whole isolated several inches over the stage-floor, suggesting its second-floor location and a widescreen cinema (music adds to this impression).
It reflects Fo’s mix of reality and exaggeration, as does the knowingness of Steve Huison’s quick-change cameos. But the women aptly crown the evening: Michelle Hardwick’s Margherita, repeatedly alarmed, her face a mask of agony or terror, but involving herself with wholehearted conviction as soon as she understands what to do.
And, supremely, Marie Critchley’s Antonia, ever-resourceful, frozen mid-plan as events take a surprise turn. Till an idea strikes more or less completely and she’s off again full-tilt, full of conviction, organising, preventing things going too far wrong for a bit longer in a miraculous comic performance.
Giovanni: Howard Chadwick.
Antonia: Marie Critchley.
Margherita: Michelle Hardwick.
Sergeant/Inspector/Undertaker/Old Man: Steve Huison.
Luigi: Phil Rowson.
Director: Kevin Shaw.
Designer: Nancy Surman.
Lighting: Thomas Weir.
Sound: Lorna Munbden.
2008-02-17 12:11:09