Play of Hunger Comes to Stonehill’s Hemingway Theatre
April 13, 2010
The Stonehill Theatre Company will present its spring production, a comedy of errors with dashes of political farce called We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay!, on April 22nd, 23rd, and 24th at the Hemingway Theatre. Originally written and directed by Nobel Prize winner Dario Fo in 1974, the play will run each night at 8 p.m.
With olives, bird seed, and stolen pasta, the 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.
In addition to being a playwright, Fo is a satirist, director, actor and composer whose plays follow in the tradition of Italy's commedia dell'arte, a style popular with the working class. His work provokes and entertains, offering audiences humor and perspective.
Widely translated, Fo's plays call for action. Consequently, he is among the most produced playwrights in Italy. The Stonehill Theatre Company will highlight the political and social message of Fo's play, connecting it to the very real issues of hunger and desperation in society.
While written in a comedic fashion, We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay! provides a personal perspective of the hardships that workers and their families and is based on an incident that happened in an Italian town in the early 1970s, a time of economic recession and political turmoil.
The play will be directed by Theresa Lang, a theater lecturer at Boston College and the Interim Chair of Dramaturgy for the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. (Dramaturgy is art of writing and producing plays.) She has worked locally as a director, lighting designer, and researcher.
Lang's most recent projects have been at Boston College where she directed new plays for the Arts Festival and a well-received production of Diana Son's Stop Kiss.
A theatre historian, her research interests include 19th century popular entertainment, American theatre, site specific performance and the creation of performance space, particularly in urban locales.
General admission for We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay! will be $8 and $5 for students and seniors. Consistent with the play's theme, a $2 discount will be offered with the donation of a non-perishable food item. Food will be donated to a St. Paul's Table in Brockton.
Ticket reservations can be made by calling 508-565-1458. Following the performance, a 15 minute talk with members of the cast and members of the Student Activism Club will be held.
Contact
For more information, contact Communications and Media Relations at 508-565-1321.