CAN'T PAY? WON'T PAY! To 26 February.
Derby
CAN'T PAY? WON'T PAY!
by Dario Fo translated by Lino Pertile adapted by Bill Colville and Robert Walker
Derby Playhouse To 26 February 2005
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat 23 Feb 2.30pm
Audio-described 23 Feb 7.30pm
BSL Signed 24 Feb
Backchat 24 Feb
Runs 2hr 10min One interval
TICKETS: 01332 363275
www.derbyplayhouse.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 16 February
Looters become liberators and liberated in farcical Italian piece.This 30-year old (1974) play comes over in Karl Wallace's Derby production as a rumbustious political prank. Author Dario Fo was a revelation to seventies British theatre for bringing the rude health of popular comedy into politics. Yet, while Can't Pay (built on a recent spontaneous strike by Italian housewives when shop prices rose sharply) meant something in inflation-torn seventies Britain, it feels more remote today.
Whatever the problems of modern prudent political economics, they don't include spiralling inflation and frequent price hikes. Nor is New Labour an equivalent for the Euro-Communism Fo had in his sights. That, after all, still proclaimed left-wing ideals while forever compromising.
And, while Roman Catholicism remains a strongly-held faith or influence for many, it's hardly the cultural bedrock it is in this play's society. It's doubtful so many of today's women take such fearful account of what their menfolk will think. Yet the farcical concealment of the food is as much to keep its liberation' from husbands as the prying police, summed up in Christopher Chilton's contrasting, yet always ridiculous plods.
So how do you handle a revival of this play? Something so full of contemporary politics can't easily be mounted as a period piece. Wallace's solution is to go for the anarchic farce. At least this gives a jolly good time. And while it might not be anywhere near a response to current British politics, the female solidarity, the sense of things kept away from the men (who are so sure they know so much) retains a popular appeal. Consciousness is raised as food is lifted.
Philippa Peak's excellent Margherita, full of alarmed amazement as she's made at once alive and anxious by her capers, contrasts Jo Donnelly's resourceful Antonia, ever-ready to provide a cover story (Donnelly took the part at short notice you'd never know from her confident handling of all these situations). The men offer fine support, which puts them in the right place.
Wallace involves the audience, refers back to the Christmas show, and misses no chance for a visual gag. Some seem a tad desperate, but generally things are enjoyably inventive.
Sergeant/Inspector/Old Man/Undertaker/et al: Christopher Chilton
Antonia: Jo Donnelly
Luigi: Sean McKenzie
Margherita: Phillipa Peak
Giovanni: James Weaver
Company: Janet Armstrong, Jacquie Baxter, Tracy Butler, Carole Challis, Lin Freeman, Karen Gregson, Linda Pell, Trish Wright
Director: Karl Wallace
Designer: Diego Pitarch
Lighting: Amy Smyth
Sound: Paul Delaney
2005-02-22 01:02:20