By Dario Fo and Franca Rame
Adapted by Marieke Hardy
CATERPILLAR EYEBROW ARCH – ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Dramatic Premise
Antonia and Margherita are aghast!
The economy is in the pits. They can’t pay the gas bill, let alone the rent. And the local supermarket has just doubled its prices!
The cost-of-living crisis is at its zenith.
Photo Credit – Sydney Theatre Company / Daniel Boud
But Antonia and her mates won’t sit idly by. No! They instigate a riot and start looting the supermarket’s shelves. Liberating everything from vegetables and pasta to dog food and canary pellets and something called rabbit heads(!).
Margherita is shocked by Antonia’s wanton disregard for law and order. But her husband, Giovanni, is the real problem. He’s a trade union leader and does everything by the book. If he learns of his wife’s criminality, he’ll likely call the cops himself and get her locked up.
Better hide the liberated groceries before he gets home, ci?
Photo Credit – Sydney Theatre Company / Daniel Boud
But the cops are circling and Giovanni is approaching. What to do? Send Margherita home with the stolen goods secreted beneath her overcoat, of course! Now she’s rocking about on bandy legs with her hands supporting her back, as her belly bulges outwards.
And so begins a riotous romp which explores socialism, theft, egalitarianism, crime and the mysteries of sudden pregnancy where the fetus gestates in a sea of brine and womb olives…
What a Joyous Farce!
This production was a hoot!
Our matinee audience was giggling and guffawing from the sheer hilarity of the opening scene right up to the somewhat sombre rendition of Bella Ciao at the end of the play; a song I have since learned became popular during the Nazi occupation of Italy!
There were endearing reminders of The Play That Goes Wrong when the stage crew, inspired by the theme of the story, go on strike mid-production, leaving the actors to re-arrange sets and organise props themselves.
Photo Credit – Sydney Theatre Company / Daniel Boud
There’s a hilarious, wordless episode where Giovanni contemplates eating the dogfood, followed by laughter aplenty when Margherita’s husband, Luigi, completes the stomach-turning act…only to cause Giovanni’s stomach to turn when he suddenly realises that Luigi has consumed his own wife’s womb olives! Giovanni may be a stickler when it comes to union rules, but he’s clearly oblivious to the rules of reproductive biology.
And there’s hysterical physical comedy every time Margherita has to adjust the unstable contents beneath her overcoat to avoid exposure. By comparison, actual pregnancy looks easy!
Photo Credit – Sydney Theatre Company / Daniel Boud
If you want a good belly-laugh, No Pay, No Way, is a must see.
For more information about the Sydney Theatre Company production of “No Pay, No Way”:
Leave a comment