Low Pay? Don’t Pay!

Italian playwright Dario Fo’s (1974) Non si paga, non si paga!, in Joseph Farrell’s (1977) translation, Low Pay?  Don’t Pay!, approaches the topics of social inequity and civil disobedience through an institution-challenging comedic farce, a style typical of Fo’s prodigious dramatic output.

Beginning with a food riot over price increases, the play has two wives hiding their stolen food from their husbands, who stumble into secrets of their own to keep from their wives.  And all of them have complicated relationships with the local police, some of whom are diligently searching for the stolen loot.

As the play progresses, the farcical results of conflicting attempts by various characters to deceive one another create many genuinely humorous moments.  It’s a long play, even at breakneck speed, and Maddie Lee and Chloe Smith, as Antonia (Toni) and her friend Margherita (Maggie) respectively, and Lachlan Abrahams and Rowan McMurray as their respective husbands, workmates Gio and Luigi, all bring a sense of genuine concern to their roles.  Antonia Kitzel does wonders with the fifth lead character, who appears, through what seems like a deliberate crack in the fourth wall, to have several somewhat transparent police identities.  And their every line was readily discernible throughout the theatre.

The play could have been made tighter by removal of extraneous scenes that unnecessarily broke the fourth wall and thereby the theatrical illusion.  The final scene in particular, pummelling the audience with didactic declarations that the play itself had already allowed us to draw for ourselves, could well have been omitted.  That said, this production, which was supported by great set design and lighting, was a lot of fun for anybody who’d like a long evening’s entertainment and easy laughs.

John P. Harvey. 

Image:  [L–R] Rowan McMurray, Antonia Kitzel, Lachlan Abrahams, Maddie Lee, and Chloe Smith, in Low Pay?  Don't Pay!.  Photographer: Ross Gould.