Cast

Synopsis

They Don’t Pay? We Won’t Pay! is a fast-paced, exceedingly funny adaptation of Dario Fo’s play Can’t Pay! Won’t Pay! originally written in Italian in 1974. Deborah McAndrew has done a wonderful job of updating this play and we will see how it also reflects life today with rising food prices, energy prices etc.

The play is set in a high rise block of flats somewhere ‘up North’ and centres round a group of women who live in these flats refusing to pay high prices at the supermarket. They resort to walking out without paying, stuffing their shopping up their clothes and pretending to be pregnant. The Police become involved with hilarious consequences.

Directors Notes

Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay! is a play originally written in Italian by Dario Fo in 1974. Regarded as Fo’s best-known play internationally after Morte accidentale di un anarchico, it had been performed in 35 countries by 1990. Considered a Marxist political farce, it is a comedy about consumer backlash against high prices. Sound familiar? That is the text you find when putting it into Google search and it does explain this play. I say this play because the play you will see tonight is an adaptation by Deborah McAndrew and is so relevant to what is happening today, not only in the UK but worldwide. There is actually a UK protest group at this present time called Don’t Pay and it is a grassroots campaign opposing the rise in energy bills and consumer rights. We demand action etc. This campaign seems to be happening all across the country, with most people struggling at the moment not only with energy bills but with the price of food and goods. However, I don’t want you to think after reading this that the play you are going to see tonight is a slow, depressing drama with the characters all struggling to cope, on the contrary it is a fast moving farce that will make you laugh out loud, but at the same time make you think too. It all takes place in an ordinary northern town, a northern town who find themselves behind the eight ball, a northern town who don’t have food banks or a council who put the people first. A northern town where it seems people have been forgotten and so the ladies of the town decide against their husbands’ wishes to take things into their own hands in a fight to survive. We hope you all find yourselves in a good place at the moment and that you enjoyed Christmas and time with loved ones and friends. I think this play is so important to us all at this time, with laughter and entertainment required to help us all cope with the day to day demands. As a cast we do hope you are ready for a good laugh and that we can send you home happy. I would like, as a cast, to send our love and best wishes to Ian and Gilly and hope Ian is starting to take small steps in his recovery. We would like to dedicate the play to Ian as a gesture of support to Gilly and their families. Sending love and positive hugs to everyone and hoping 2023 is all you anticipate.