REVIEW
✭✭✭✭✭ 5/5
They Don’t Pay? We Won’t Pay! Oh What a Night!
23 March – 31 March
Mercury Theatre
Balkern Gate
Colchester
Box Office:
www.mercurytheatre.co.uk / 01206 573948
✭✭✭✭✭ 5/5
They Don’t Pay? We Won’t Pay! Oh What a Night!
23 March – 31 March
Mercury Theatre
Balkern Gate
Colchester
Box Office:
www.mercurytheatre.co.uk / 01206 573948
If you want to spend a night laughing hilariously at a thought provoking play, then go to the Mercury Theatre, Colchester. They Don’t Pay? We Won’t Play, written by Nobel Prize winner Dario Fo, and his wife Franca Rame, was written in the seventies when people were protesting in Italy about the increased prices of food and, the expensive cost of living. Sound familiar?
All this time later, both his original tale of fed-up workers nicking groceries is even more relevant. In a nation of soaring food-bank use, with Covid and Brexit stockpiling, it is on record that shoplifting is definitely on the increase. The play adapted to the 21st Century, by Deborah McAndrew, has women in desperation, stealing piles of food that they can’t afford from supermarkets.
All this time later, both his original tale of fed-up workers nicking groceries is even more relevant. In a nation of soaring food-bank use, with Covid and Brexit stockpiling, it is on record that shoplifting is definitely on the increase. The play adapted to the 21st Century, by Deborah McAndrew, has women in desperation, stealing piles of food that they can’t afford from supermarkets.
As the play opens, the audience is greeted to a stream of Hell’s grannies charging across the stage with their trolleys of stolen goods and a lone police officer in hot pursuit. As it evolves, the audience are told what happened in the Supermarket Sweep, by a narration, with characters’ comedic miming of the events. More comedy follows as the women try to hide the stolen food from their husbands and the police. Desperate to hide their ill-gotten gains, Anthea, the hard up housewife, trying to hold things together, weaves an ever-growing web of fantastical tales. This is a barnstorming performance, by Laura Doddington, as Anthea, who even resorts to birdseed stew (because it is cheap- get it?) and tins of dog food inadvertently stolen from the pet food aisle. From then on, it is one laugh after another, with the jokes coming thick and fast with a nod and wink to the audience.
Tesni Kujorea’s Maggie, is a quirky, younger and naive woman that goes along with all the hilarious plans cooked up by her friend. More comedy evolves when Anthea’s husband, Jack (Joseph Alessi) a decent human being with strong moral views, starts to behave in a way that contradicts his politics. It is also hilarious when he and Maggie’s husband Lewis (Jack Shalloo) are made to believe in the miracle of swapped pregnancies.
Tesni Kujorea’s Maggie, is a quirky, younger and naive woman that goes along with all the hilarious plans cooked up by her friend. More comedy evolves when Anthea’s husband, Jack (Joseph Alessi) a decent human being with strong moral views, starts to behave in a way that contradicts his politics. It is also hilarious when he and Maggie’s husband Lewis (Jack Shalloo) are made to believe in the miracle of swapped pregnancies.
There is a brilliant performance by Marc Pickering, who plays several characters including a lonely, socialist police constable and a bullying police sergeant straight out of Joe Orton. The other actors make the audience aware that it is the same actor with references to whether he is with or without a half attached moustache, or even in different clothes with a different accent. All this adds to the fun that is almost pantomime. How he manages to quickly go off stage and reappear, as someone else, is a miracle of timing and costume changes.
As the situation spirals out of control this farce has fake pregnancies, as food is hidden under coats, a mix up with coffins and bodies, and a very funny police chase that ends as a ‘slo mo’ Chariots of Fire. There are also very clever technical effects with doors and drawers constantly opening and shutting as if by magic.
The wise cracking dialogue mixes political satire and, hilarious plot twists to create a very funny and witty play about the lengths people will go to when they’re desperate. Everything is played with a nudge and a wink to the audience with the actors constantly breaking the forth wall.
As the situation spirals out of control this farce has fake pregnancies, as food is hidden under coats, a mix up with coffins and bodies, and a very funny police chase that ends as a ‘slo mo’ Chariots of Fire. There are also very clever technical effects with doors and drawers constantly opening and shutting as if by magic.
The wise cracking dialogue mixes political satire and, hilarious plot twists to create a very funny and witty play about the lengths people will go to when they’re desperate. Everything is played with a nudge and a wink to the audience with the actors constantly breaking the forth wall.
From the start, there is constant physical disorder, and loud verbal commotion. Everything is fair game, politics, the Pope, the police, the bankers and all done tongue in cheek. Deborah McAndrew has expertly adapted the original comedy into great British humour. This fast-paced farce always lets the audience in on the joke. When the political references were made the audience cheered and clapped particularly the ones re party gate, the sit down protestors and even the Met police, which was even more topical. All the political points are well scored by laughter and jokes and not by lecturing, and the audience loved it.
When you thought it was all over, the stage turned into a rock opera. Led by a rock and roll Marc Pickering, in yet another role, as a large group of protestors sang, and waved their banners in protest about life today.
When you thought it was all over, the stage turned into a rock opera. Led by a rock and roll Marc Pickering, in yet another role, as a large group of protestors sang, and waved their banners in protest about life today.
They Don’t Pay? We Won’t Pay! Is brought to life by the Mercury Theatre’s Creative Director, Ryan McBryde. This play is a very funny, subversive farce, but in between the lines there is outrage that in this century there are food banks, and people having to decide whether to ‘heat or eat.’
If you can’t forget the problems of today, but want a good laugh about it, buy a hot ticket to see this hilarious production, which continues until Friday 31 March. It is the most interesting and entertaining piece of theatre I have seen for a long time.
The show continues:-
Thu 23 Mar 2023 - Fri 31 Mar 2023
Duration:
Approx. 2hrs 20mins, incl. interval
Matinees Thursday and Saturday at 2.30pm
Evenings 7:30 pm
Price:
£15.00 - £30.00
(inc. £1.50 ticket levy)
Review by Jacquee Storozynski-Toll
If you can’t forget the problems of today, but want a good laugh about it, buy a hot ticket to see this hilarious production, which continues until Friday 31 March. It is the most interesting and entertaining piece of theatre I have seen for a long time.
The show continues:-
Thu 23 Mar 2023 - Fri 31 Mar 2023
Duration:
Approx. 2hrs 20mins, incl. interval
Matinees Thursday and Saturday at 2.30pm
Evenings 7:30 pm
Price:
£15.00 - £30.00
(inc. £1.50 ticket levy)
Review by Jacquee Storozynski-Toll