BWW Reviews: Intiman's WE WON'T PAY Goes Over the Top and Stays There

I like absurdist farce, raucous hijinks and Italian commedia as much as the next guy and Dario Fo is certainly a master of all three. However when a production of one of his plays such as the Intiman's current production of "We Won't Pay, We Won't Pay" starts off going 100 miles an hour and stays there for the entire show, it becomes old and wearing and really not all that funny.

One of his better known plays, in "We Won't Pay, We Won't Pay", Fo takes a searing look at people revolting against the rising cost of living by taking what they want and simply refusing to pay. It starts out with Antonia (Tracy Michelle Hughes) and her friend Margherita (Kylee Rousellot) coming home laden with bags upon bags of groceries. It seems when Antonia was at the market, the ladies of the village became fed up with the rising costs and decided they would only pay what they felt was fair (and some not at all). And so the penniless Antonia goes on a shopping spree and comes home with all her ill-gotten groceries. But she cannot let her overly honest husband, Giovanni (Burton Curtis) see all this so the two ladies hide it all anywhere they can including under Margherita's coat. But when a bumbling police officer (Adam Standley) comes to the flat looking for the stolen food the only excuse they can give for Margherita's belly is that she's pregnant, a lie which then spins completely out of control and which causes Giovanni and Margherita's husband Luiggi (G. Valmont Thomas) to go on their own little crime spree.

The problem I had with this adaptation from Ron Jenkins as directed by Jane Nichols is that there was no way to actually invest in the characters in order to care what happens to them. They started off in your face and over the top and never left there. And without that hook into the characters or any kind of story arc it just felt like the show was spinning its wheels in order to get to the next pratfall. And speaking of the pratfalls, for a show that is relying so much on the physical comedy, the polish of that comedy just wasn't there. The night I saw it the cast seemed to get off with a lack of timing and never got out of that rut and the play on the whole just seemed slapped together and under rehearsed. With all of the potential for gut busting antics, it was sad to see it not realized and just left me wanting for a show like the Rep's "Boeing Boeing" from last season from which this show could have taken a lesson.

The cast is definitely working hard up there. They eventually managed to hit every point but with that lack of polish their hard work looked like hard work and just came across as going through the motions. The one notable exception was Standley whose multiple police officers (not to mention his old man and undertaker) were an absolute joy. He managed several complete and engaging characters and seemed completely solid on his performance, which only showed off the holes in the rest. But even his performance couldn't rescue the show especially since, as with most of Fo's work, we shouldn't be connecting with the people in authority. But since I couldn't root for the little guy he's all I had left.

Now it could have just been an off night or it could be that this particular show just didn't strike a chord with me (I was never much of a fan of those sitcoms where the characters just keep digging themselves deeper and deeper into their hole). But for someone who just loves good storytelling, this production felt like it was repeatedly flipping me the bird as it just went nowhere.

"We Won't Pay, We Won't Pay" performs at the Cornish Playhouse at Seattle Center (formerly Intiman Playhouse) through September 14th. For tickets or information contact the Intiman box office at 206-441-7178 or visit them online at www.intiman.org.

Photo credit: Chris Bennion

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