Low Pay? Don't Pay

“Low  Pay? Don’t Pay!” - Written by Dario Fo – was originally set in Italy at a time of social upheaval.  However this production was translated to reflect the current social and political life of the workers in Wollongong.  Workers were striking in a bid to win better wages and women wouldn't accept that they were inferior.  This production takes Fo's writing and embellishes it with slap stick (reminded us girls of John Cleese and the Ministry Funny Walks) which is at times daft but never degenerates into the surreal.  Stage managers are brought into the action to get extra laughs by clever use of props.

As part of the civil unrest, people refused to pay spiralling prices for electricity and consumer goods. In fact they insisted on paying only what they considered to be a fair price for essential items - or nothing at all. Shoplifting and theft became rife.

Low Pay? Don’t Pay!” traces the story of Antonia and Margherita as they join the crowds of people taking groceries from a supermarket without paying.  It follows their hilarious attempts to disguise their ill-gotten gains from their hot-headed moralist husbands, Giovannin and Luigi – not to mention the police - by resorting to more and more inventive hiding places.  Finally they take to hiding them under their coats and pretending to be pregnant. The audience was in uproar when Antonia’ announced she had a wet butt but it wasn’t her waters that had broken, it was a bag of olives!

The twist to the play see the husbands fall from their high moral position as they discover they have been made redundant  and they secure some goods that just happen to have fallen off the back of a lorry. 

 The play had a slow start with sections where there was no laughs as time was taken to explain the social conditions.  The result was that “Low Pay? Don’t Pay” was an amusing entertaining evening rather jaw-achingly funny one. 

All the jaw-achingly funny stuff took place outside of the theatre; while the ladies in the back seat of Vanessa’s car struggled to get the seat belts on without strangling themselves.  It was a great evening; great company and excellent value for money.