They Don't Pay? We Won't Pay! review

With the Lyric Hammersmith currently home to the Sheffield Crucible’s production of Accidental Death of an Anarchist, it seems that Nobel prize-winning political playwright Dario Fo is in demand again.

When Fo and Franca Rame collaborated to write Sotto Paga? Non Si Paga! in 1974, it was created as a direct criticism of merchants and landlords who had raised the prices of essential goods and rents, and the bosses who had cut wages and benefits. The Italian Communist Party at the time had instigated a policy of austerity measures and Fo and Rame’s play urged party members to reject this move. This new adaptation by Deborah McAndrew may have updated many of the references out of necessity but the criticisms of our own government are just as razor sharp.

While the play may have been brought up to date, there’s a jolly nod to the 1970s in the production’s opening montage, with ungainly Pythonesque head-scarfed housewives looting the local supermarket. Ryan McBryde’s gloriously frenetic staging beds itself firmly into all the farcical elements of the Fo/Rame original, embracing the physicality. There are chases, quick-changes, and plenty of groan-worthy puns directed squarely at the audience. Zoë Hurwitz’s intriguing set design initially appears fairly simplistic but the box-set apartment slides back and forth, while flats slide across the stage to create a satisfying sense of movement for the chase scenes.

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