We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay!: Nobel Laureate Dario Fo's "Comedy of Hunger"
Central Square Theater (450 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02139)
- Full Price:
- $32.00
- Our Price:
- FREE - $16.00*
* Additional fees apply.
All offers for We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay! have expired.
The last date listed for We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay! was Sunday September 28, 2008 / 3:00pm.
Currently at Central Square Theater:
Car Talk: The Musical!!! - Inspired by the Hit NPR Call-In Show
- Full Price:
- $45.00 - $50.00
- Our Price:
- $22.50 - $25.00
Inspired by the long-running hit NPR show Car Talk -- which is hosted by legendary (real-life) mechanics Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers -- comes the hilarious new musical comedy, Car Talk: The Musical!!! at Central Square Theater. A co-production of Underground Railway Theater and Suffolk University, the show was written by Suffolk faculty member Wesley Savick, with original music by Michael Wartofsky. In it, Rusty Fenders, the hapless owner of a lemon '93 Kia, falls in love with Miata C. LaChassis. She guides him to the Emerald Garage, home to the Wizard of Cahs (portrayed by the recorded, heavily accented voices of Click and Clack themselves). Like the radio show, it's a romantic comedy about being in love with your car -- and so, so much more. Learn More
2 Goldstar Member Reviews
Joe R.
As we are being fleeced $700 billion by bankers, it is nice to have some paradigm challenging theater in town. Dario Fo is great material and the acting was superb. Now if we can only escalate We Won't Pay from the supermarket to the Treasury and world financial centers.Written on Sep 29 2008
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Goldstar Member
The production was fine. My complaint was with the play. Maybe slapstick and agitprop just don't work in translation.Written on Sep 22 2008
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More Information About We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay!
Website
http://www.centralsquaretheater.org/
Quotes & Highlights
- "The revival by The Nora Theatre Company, a housewarming for The Nora’s new digs at Central Square Theater, is so lively... the bravura turn is by Scott H. Severance, whose lovable meatball of a Giovanni... is anything but a foe of Fo." --Boston Phoenix
- "The production is very entertaining; the clever blending of the larger-than-life theatrics of traditional commedia dell’arte with the familiar structure of American sitcoms is a riot..." --Bay Windows
- "Fo's script, and Daniel Gidron's perfectly tuned direction, keep the audience laughing until the last moment." --EDGE Boston
Description
The Nora Theatre Company speaks to the times with Nobel Prize winner Dario Fo’s work of politics and hilarity, We Won’t Pay! We Won’t Pay!, playing at Central Square Theater. In the side-splitting satire written in 1974, the housewives have had enough... prices are high and getting higher and it’s time for them to take matters into their own hands, but the challenge is how to keep their husbands from finding out that they’ve stormed the supermarket!
With stolen olives, bird seed, and pasta, this farcical comedy about a housewives’ revolt against out of control inflation looks at hypocrisy, injustice, and liberation with a healthy dose of hysterics thrown in for good measure. We Won’t Pay! We Won’t Pay! is translated by Ron Jenkins and directed by The Nora’s Associate Director, Daniel Gidron (IRNE Award nominee - Best Director, Small Theater for The Nora’s production of Buried Child).
Italian born Dario Fo is a playwright, actor, director, theatrical designer, composer, an outspoken theatrical activist, and a skilled satirist, whose works address topics taken from current news. He has written at least 70 plays, many of which have been translated into more than thirty languages and performed in over fifty countries. Fo won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1997, after first being nominated in 1975, and is the first writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature who is also an actor, physical comedian and clown. He has also been awarded an Obie Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre.
Ron Jenkins’ translation of We Won’t Pay! We Won’t Pay! had its first public reading in Harvard University’s Learning from Performers series in 1998 and premiered on stage at American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge in 1999. Jenkins began his research on Dario Fo in Italy in 1985 with the support of a Sheldon Fellowship from Harvard University, and was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, which enabled him to spend nearly a year translating, directing, and writing about Fo's works. He has directed plays by Fo in Israel, Lithuania, and the U.S. and has an extensive history writing and lecturing about Fo.
Daniel Gidron has directed over 15 productions for The Nora, as well as for Lyric Stage Company, Shakespeare & Company (Golda’s Balcony, Elliot Norton and IRNE Award winner for Best Solo Performance), Peterborough Players, Jewish Theatre of New England, and Merrimack Repertory Theatre, among many others. He has also directed at the Habimah National Theatre, Jaifa Municipal Theatre, and the Arab Theatre (a production of Dario Fo’s Accidental Death of an Anarchist) in Israel.
The cast of The Nora Theatre Company production of We Won’t Pay! We Won’t Pay! includes Stephanie Clayman as Antonia; Elise Manning (IRNE Award winner – Best Supporting Actress, Drama for Kindertransport, West End Theater) in the role of Margherita; Rob Najarian as Luigi; Antonia Ocampo-Guzman in the roles of Police Sergeant, State Trooper, Gravedigger, and Grandfather; and Scott Severance (The Fool in The Nora’s production of Dario Fo’s Accidental Death of an Anarchist, directed by Daniel Gidron) as Giovanni.
Set design is by Brynna Bloomfield; costume design is by Gail Astrid Buckley (Elliot Norton Award - Outstanding Costume Design for Curse of the Bambino, Lyric Stage Company; Much Ado About Nothing, Publick Theatre; Twelfth Night, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company; Shel's Shorts: Signs of Trouble, Market Theater; IRNE Award - Best Costume Design, Small Theater for The Women and for Caroline or Change, SpeakEasy Stage Company); lighting design is by Scott Pinkney; and sound design is by Dewey Dellay (Elliot Norton Award - Outstanding Design, Small/Midsize Company for Miss Witherspoon; 9 Parts of Desire, Lyric Stage Company; The Women, SpeakEasy Stage Company; IRNE Award winner for Five by Tenn, SpeakEasy Stage Company).
About the Ticket Supplier: Central Square Theater
The Central Square Theater is home to Underground Railway Theater (URT) and The Nora Theatre Company, two professional theater companies with a combined track record of over 48 years of excellence.
URT has a 29 year history of connecting high quality professional theater with communities, performing new plays for young audiences, families and adults, and teaching through its rigorous education programming. Combining actors, puppetry and music, URT reaches out to and engages diverse audiences with performances of great beauty and compelling social content.
During The Nora's 19 years, audiences and the media have recognized it for its exceptionally high quality work. Mission-driven to bring cutting-edge, thought- provoking, and contemporary productions to New England audiences, The Nora has introduced local audiences to Boston, New England, and/or world premieres.