ACCIDENTAL DEATH OF AN ANARCHIST was a real breakthrough in bringing radical theatre to the West End. farce ' Criterion Theatre. Kirkham played the maniac in the original production of 'Anarchist' and is now one of the leads in 'Can't Pay? Won't Pay!'.
Tell us what the new Dario Fo play is about.
centres around two working class families in a suburb My, Gio The The ni, is a Communist Party member of the old school - you know sep Dy step, the whole - and doesn't DUSHICS. believe in direct action.
His wife Antonia and her friend Margueritta, and al the women in ine block where they live are so incensed by Colistalli price rises, that they decide and either just take the either just take goods OI pay whal they think they're worth. They don't reanse that they can't get away with it with aneir ausoaos One of the CP members says 'If I found any wife of mine stealing food I would make her eat the lot of it, can and all, Fa kill her and then I'd get a divorce So the farce revolyes around the women trying to hide this food and convince their husbands At the same time the husbands become radicalised by things happening their lives, when one of Inem is made Icuundall.
The play's got all the elements of farce. that it's political and people don't LOSC their trousers.
All of us involved in the play are socialists. All theatre's pontical there's no such thing as non-political DUL this kind of theatre gets labelled 'political' because it's left wing.
'Anarchist' the I0 West after it had already been on tour with shows in front of trade unions and so on. But this is starting the other way around!
Actually there's already tour but wasn't very successful. But there's a built in irony here. Dario Fo has proved himselt as a playNow a new Dario Fo 'Can't Pay? Won't Pay!' is opening at the Phil Hearse and Kathy talked to ALFRED MOLINA, who wright and has heen writing this kind of thing for years, auld recently that he's become well known in this coun try. Now he's become a Dankable commoulty allel the success of 'Anarchist That's this play's Criterion, rather than starting off in arts centres and community halls.
the interesting things about Italy is that the struggle against price rises has been organised by the unions - for example the auto reduccione movement in Turin, where the unions organised people to refuse to pay fare increases and burn their gas bills. there anything of that in the play?
The play makes it quite clear that women's raid on the supermarket wasn't just individual people looting. They are organised and have cogent view of what the world is doing to them. There'se one or the play Witc OlIC women says to her husband who is telling her that stealing wrong: were out there today fighting, whee your party, your union and witic were you Do you think anything to teach us about political theatre?
There have been two plays by Fo put on in Britain and I've been in both of them. What I've learned is that political HOSL theatre like Howard Brenton, David Hare and Trevor Griffiths theatre of ideas.
bogged down with this literary tradition, so the actors have debates on stage. that. He says *Bugger let's have a good time, sod intellectual debate, let's enjoy ourselves — our job is to entertain' I've learned inal lnere s a place for theatre of but I'm not really interested in it at Alfred Molina as Fiat worker Giovanni the moment I'm interested in making politics tur theatre of action.
talking earner about political theatre breaking the West End. But surely the auprevileged an wae toy diences there are don't get many workers going to the theatre in the West End of London.
Well sure, our audiences are going to be young, mobile, trendy lefTes The working class don't go to the theatre they've got the best theatre in the world, British televi### Live theatre has compete against very high technical standards of thelish TV, very tion THeatre , very high standards of performance.
So what's the point for ordinary people going to of their way to check out what is ultimately an unknown quantity, when they can just turn on their The only way that left wing political acting Willl ultimately get across is by breaking into the mass media that count - television and films.
So our play the Criterion, the little cell of liberated cultural activity, isn't going to change the world. In this sense theatre isn't revolutionary; what is controllrevo luondry Is ing television, radio and Hullis The only kind of live working class theatre now is varlety - - and look at it. it's racist, sexist and so on. Look at your average club comedian, what does he talk about? i ne size CODIC S cocks, about blacks, women, the Irish. Real vicious stuff.
think that anyone who's involved in the performing arts, and I know a lot of people disagree witn me, has got to be a success to have any kind of influence.
That's what Fo says. . If you want to be a socialist artist, then first of all you've got to be a good artist. No amount of commitment will make up for not being a good artist. So what I suppose I'm really talking about is burrowing from within.
That's what we're starting to do with the West End, starting cidental Death'. The West End is changing. All these theatre managers are shitting bricks, because they know they're dying breed. Whereas they've beet shrinking the last 10 years, the fringe has been expanding attracting new directors writers and so on.
I think what we should do is play them at and say OK, you can have our show, on our terms. You all lay our little leftie cabaret o our terms At 'Accident' the performers insisted that the management had different ticket prices for OAPS students and claimants that's never happened before in the West End You're not going to tell me that that's selling out?
'Can't Pay? Won't Pay!' is now showing at the Criterion Theatre, Piccadilly Circus.
Socialist Chailenge 23 July 1981
WE DO ALL THE WORK Socialist Printed by East End Offset (TU) Ltd, London E2 Challenge PO Box bu. London N BAT Esso Imperial Toba 19S-k3 ICI WE RULE YOU WE FOOL YOU WE SHOOT YOU BP B Ford