We Won’t Pay! We Won’t Pay!

Will Act For Food presents We Won’t Pay! We Won’t Pay!, by Dario Fo.

The play is described by translator Ron Jenkins as “a comedy of hunger.” It peeks into the lives of two sets of poor couples and their struggles with both literal and figurative hunger.

At the play’s opening, we meet Antonia telling her best friend and neighbor, Margherita, that she just participated in an impromptu protest at a local market: a group of women had protested the ever-rising cost of food and demanded lower prices, as the community is poor. When this failed, the angry mob revolted by taking all the food they could and most left the store without paying a penny. Fearing getting caught by her overly-honest husband, she rushes to hide the food under the bed – and also in Margherita’s dress. From here, a hilarious web of complicated lies leads the women to fake a pregnancy, “fetus transplant,” and birth as a distraction while the police begin searching all the houses for stolen food. But how will they pull it off, and why does that policeman look so familiar? And where did that coffin come from? Somehow, the twists and turns of this play take the unexpected road to the truth – and it’s the best road possible.

Box Office Hours: 7pm-8pm night of show (24/7 for reservations at 773-327-9725)

On 10/31, the production has a special ticket price of $30 for a Cans for Cash foodraising event, where patrons can pay with a mixture of cash and cans.