Dog Sees God
We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay!
By Dario Fo
Directed by David M. Jenkins
June 1 – 18, 2006
Thu. – Sat. 8pm, Sun. 4pm
Tickets: $16.50 – $21.50
Shimberg Playhouse, Straz Center for the Performing Arts
With the price of groceries rising every day, what's a poor girl to do? Spontaneously protest by stuffing food up her sweater and pretending to be pregnant, of course!
In a new translation, We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay! is a side-splitting, chaotic comedy of errors. Think classic commedia dell'arte meets The Honeymooners. At the heart of all the high jinks is a basic human need – hunger – and the very human desire to satisfy that need with one's dignity intact.
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Fans of Jobsite's previously produced politically-charged work like The Complete History of America (abridged), The Mineola Twins and Cloud Nine should feel completely at home with this new production.
In We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay! simple housewife Antonia is forced into joining a crowd of women in "liberating" groceries due to poverty and merciless price-gouging in a world where both government and business conspire against the working class.
When the police begin a house-to-house search, Antonia enlists the aid of her best friend Margherita to hide the goods by masquerading as pregnant women. As the first lie is told to Antonia's factory worker husband Giovanni, a wild comic sequence of events explodes and spirals out of control through the final curtain.
We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay! has been staged in over thirty countries. Like Chaplin's tramp reduced to eating his shoe in The Gold Rush, Dario Fo's clowns suffer from hungers with which everyone can identify.
Dario Fo's strength is in the creation of texts that simultaneously amuse, engage and provide perspectives. As in commedia dell'arte, Fo's plays are open for creative additions and dislocations, encouraging improvisation and influencing the audience in remarkable ways.
Jobsite Teams Up With Metropolitan Ministries
Jobsite is partnering with Metropolitan Ministries for a food drive during their production of We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay!
During all performances of We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay! Jobsite will host a collection barrel and accept donations for non-perishable food items. Read all about it.
About the Artists
We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay! is directed by David M. Jenkins, who also directed Jobsite's 1999 production of Fo's Accidental Death of an Anarchist (Jobsite's first co-production with TBPAC which eventually led to their residency). Jobsite's production features Katrina Stevenson (Antonia), Ward Smith (Giovanni), Meg Heimstead (Margherita), Michael C. McGreevy (Luigi) and Chris Holcom (multitudes of police officers and poorly-disguised secondary characters). Jobsite co-founder John Lott provides the scenic design and Jobsite Production Manager Brian Smallheer provides the lighting design. Jenkins and Stevenson also provide sound and costume design, respectively. See more about the cast & crew.
