Hub Theatre Plans Nobel Winner’s Satire for ArtSpace

The Hub Theatre has announced it will present Dario Fo’s masterpiece We Won’t Pay! We Won’t Pay!, Oct. 30-Nov 22 at ArtSpace Falls Church.  The play is a sharply satirical comedy on the rising cost of living, individual responsibility, and politics.

“It is so exciting to stage this work right now.  It may be decades since Fo penned this funny and biting piece, but its relevance to our current day troubles is no less accurate.” says Helen Pafumi, Hub’s Artistic Director. In The Hub’s production of We Won’t Pay! We Won’t Pay!, local director, Patrick Torres, tackles the high comedy and high concept of Fo with vigor.  He broaches the subject of economic woes not with didacticism, but rather with a trained eye toward the strength it takes to change in hard times. All of it is done with large doses of comedy and a smirk to “The Man”.

Ticket prices for We Won’t Pay! We Won’t Pay! range from $15 – $20, and are available by calling 571-275-6369 or visiting www.thehubtheatre.org. The production includes mild language and is not recommended for small children. Show times are Friday at 8:00 pm, Saturday at 2:00 pm and 8:00 pm, and Sunday at 2:00 pm and 7:00 pm.

Fo is a prolific Italian playwright, actor and mime artist, manager-director, known for his satirical plays. Fo was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1997. In his works Fo has combined oral expression from the popular performance tradition with radical thought. He has used laughter as a weapon against the conservative establishment of the Italy’s political scene, and the social and international evils of the Cold War era. Fo´s career as a dramatist and actor started in small cabarets, theatres. Later he worked at the Italian national radio and television networks. Most of Fo’s early works were one-act farces. He first attracted the attention of the critics with Il dito nell’ occhio (1953). In 1959 Fo founded with his wife, the actor Franca Rame, the Compagnia Dario which Archangels Don´t Play Pinnball, and He Had Two Pistols with White and Black Eyes. In these plays Fo adopted the view that art is an instrument of social and political change. As with La Signorina è da buttare (1967) he has also often attacked the Catholic church. The Italian government censored Fo’s works in the early period of his career. He has also been jailed, beaten up, and threatened with assassination. By performing comic sketches in television, Fo and Franca Rame became famous with the Italian public. In 1962 Fo presented a satirical television show which was closed down after just seven weeks on air. He gained international recognition in 1960s with Archangels Don’t Play Pinball, which was performed in Zagreb in Yugoslavia. In 1968 Dario Fo and Franca Rame founded the acting group Nuova Scena. In1970 Fo started his third major theatre group, Colletivo Teatrale La Comune. He performed in hurriedly constructed and staged plays, which were produced in response to specific international, national, or local issues, and used much improvisation and revisions. Among these were Guerra di popolo in Cile (1973), Fedayn (1971), The Open Couple (1983), and Zitti! Stiamo Precipitanto (1990). From the 1970s Fo has worked mainly at the Palazzina Liberty in Milano. In 1978 Fo directed the opera La storia di un soldato, an adaptation of the chamber opera by Igor Stravinsky. Later Fo has directed Rossini’s operas. For the Finnish National Opera he directed A Journey to Rheims, its opening night was in January 2003.  Among Dario Fo´s most famous works are  Accidental Death of an Anarchist, We Can´t Pay? We Won’t Pay! and Mistero buffo. In his book Manuale Minimo dell’Attore (1987) Fo has explored the history’s jesters, minstrels, and political clowns, whom he believes have changed the course of history.

Patrick Torres (Director) is the Associate Director of Young Playwrights’ Theater and a freelance director. His directing credits include Heart of a Dog (Spooky Action Theatre); Anima (Doorway Arts Ensemble); Two of Mee (The Capital Fringe Festival); The Burial at Thebes (Referendum: A Politaical Arts Collective); The Boy Who Knew No Fear (Rorschach Theatre); Much Ado about Nothing (Vpstart Crow); Othello (The Southwest Shakespeare Festival); Two of Mee, Goat Songs, Little Red Riding Hood and the Three Little Pigs (Hangar Theatre); and The Tale of Jumping Mouse (Round House Theatre Educational Tour).  He was selected as a Drama League Directing Fellow in 2003, where he served as co-artistic director of the Hanger Theatre Lab Company. Patrick has an MFA in Directing from University of Southern Mississippi.

The Hub Theatre is a non-profit professional theater company dedicated to producing dynamic plays, musicals, and developing new work.  ArtSpace Falls Church located at 410 South Maple Avenue in Falls Church City.  Free parking is available in the adjacent parking lot as well as the parking garage at 400 South Maple.