Low Pay? Don't Pay?

Low Pay? Don’t Pay? is a play written by Dario Fo.  The original play was set in 1970s Milan during an economic crisis.  It is considered to be one of Fo’s most famous works with the themes of rising living costs, unfair wages and economic injustice still relevant today.  Penarth Operatic and Dramatic Society chose to cleverly re-imagine the play so that it was set in South Wales, with families of Italian heritage.

The set was well thought about and well-constructed, showing the basic and poor living standards of the play’s main protagonists.

Sally Mathias played the role of Antonia, who had been driven to ‘steal’ food from the local supermarket during a protest.  Sally delivered the part really well, with excellent comic timing.  She built a great rapport with the rest of her cast.  Well done.

Antonia’s husband Giovanni was played by Phill Loveless.  Phill played the character well, showing his struggles to do the right thing by his wife and by his beliefs and he worked hard throughout the production.

Laura Day was great as Margherita.  Her partnership with Sally was excellent and Laura provided many moments of real comedy.  An enjoyable performance.

Wayne Assiratti delivered a solid performance as Luigi and he worked well in his partnership with Phill in their scenes.

Amanda Matthews undoubtedly worked her socks off as she transformed into no fewer than five different characters, each with their own accent and costume.  In her multiple roles, Amanda delivered many ‘laugh out loud’ moments.  An extremely physical and absolutely superb performance.  Well done indeed!

In her programme notes, director, Penni Carr challenged the audience members to ‘not get too comfortable’ and the themes and issues the play presented certainly had us audience members talking about them; during the interval and in my case, for several days afterwards.  I was excited to see what Penni’s direction would be like, having given her a NODA award for her acting last year and I must say I was not disappointed.  This was a well-drilled cast who dealt with and delivered the subject matter in the way it was meant.  Congratulations to Penni and her assistant director, Andrew Moreton.

It wouldn’t be one of my reports without a little something to work on in future and in this case, pace was occasionally an issue.  This was quite a lengthy play and sometimes the pace of dialogue made it feel just that little bit longer.

Thank you, PODS, for providing us with a very thought-provoking evening.  This was a very different style of production than I’m used to seeing from this society but enjoyable nonetheless.  I must also say that I was once again impressed with the community feel of this group, who were collecting food for the local foodbank.  I thought this was a lovely touch.  Well done. 

I look forward to seeing you later in the year.

 

The views in this report are solely of the author.

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