'We Won't Pay!' doesn't economize on laughs
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Thursday, November 5, 2009
For a wild comedy, the premise of the 1974 Italian play "We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay!" is certainly depressing.
Hunger, caused by rampant inflation, pushes everyday Italian housewives over the brink. They begin a widespread movement taking food from markets, either stealing it or paying only a portion of the price. That part is not fiction.
Dario Fo's satire, in a spirited production from the Hub Theatre, was written and is set during the economic crisis that gripped Italy in the 1970s. Inflation was unbridled, jobs disappeared rapidly, and some in the working classes were hungry and very angry.
The theater company hopes the play has something to say here and now. Its production seems more like an updated version of "The Honeymooners" than Fo's indictment of the Italian government.
Does it work as satire? Not at all. Is there still a message? Kind of, sort of. Is it funny and entertaining? Absolutely, yes.
The problems with the message arise primarily from the material, not the execution by director Patrick Torres and his cast of six.
Playwright Fo is as much a political agitator as a satirist. He takes his message so seriously that he is unable to seamlessly integrate it into a satiric or comedic framework. When he wants to make a major point, he stops the action and has his characters make a speech. They preach and rant, with the play in freeze frame.
Subtler themes are lost in the comic tumult. (Torres writes there's a message about how "the courage of one person" can start a potent movement, but that's not evident onstage.)
Torres has not managed to overcome those structural flaws, but he has created a hysterically funny piece. Fo is an adherent of the antique Italian commedia dell'arte, a theatrical style reliant on exaggerated, stylized movement traditionally aimed at working-class audiences. That gives Torres and his actors a strong foundation to layer on the shtick.
This is the first time I've seen this play without overt Italian accents. They're replaced by prominent U.S. working-class tones.
The apartment of Antonia (Helen Pafumi) and Giovanni (Michael Kramer) seems a lot like the Brooklyn home of Ralph and Alice Kramden as Giovanni alternately lays down the law to his long-suffering wife and tries to comprehend the chaos around him. His befuddled buddy, Luigi (James Gagne), is good-natured but slow-witted.
Antonia is an outrageous fibber, concocting convoluted tales to placate her husband. Luigi's wife, Margherita (Kristen Egermeier), is Antonia's mild-mannered accomplice.
The Hub Theatre is producing the play at the new ArtSpace in Falls Church. It's a gallery, not a theater. But a workable space has been carved out. If you're looking for hearty laughs, message or not, carve out some time for "We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay!"
"We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay!" continues through Nov. 22, performed by the Hub Theatre at ArtSpace Falls Church, 410 S. Maple Ave. Showtimes are 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 7 p.m. Sunday and 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. For tickets and information, visit http:/
