“We won’t pay! We won’t pay!” premieres this Thursday

Stories about the survival of the human spirit overcoming challenging circumstances have intrigued audiences all over the world and this week, a group of local dramatists hope to find similar success in their production of “We won’t pay, We won’t pay!” Billed as a comedy about the reality of social politics common in every society, members of the Belize Theatre Company hope that Belizeans will appreciate the message beneath the nonsense.

Diane Haylock, Director, We won?t pay! We won?t pay!
?We chose not to Creolized it because I wanted to give the members of my company an opportunity to do a different kind of theatre, because sometimes we tend to box ourselves into the same sort of thing and this is an extremely, extremely challenging experience for the actors, because they have to be a lot more physical. The words alone don?t do it, so they?ve had to put themselves in some extremely improbable situations to actually help to create these characters. It?s really absolutely hilarious.?

Michael Coye, ?Geovanni?
?The physicality of it all…they have me barking like a dog or crowing like a rooster, so it?s far different from anything I?ve done before, so it was bit difficult at first, but once you get into it, it came a bit easier.?

Pamela Gideon, ?Antonia?
?I think that there?s a lot that we could identify with, especially the events of the past year… it has a certain political theme, but I think the real thing that we would identify with is the human story, the desperation and the wants and needs of other characters and how they go about to get what they need.?

Diane Haylock
?It?s very irreverent about many established institutions in society. It makes fun of the church; it makes fun of the politicians, the capitalist system as a whole. It?s funny, it?s funny, but it does not take away from the fact that as a society we need to sort of look at these issues and try to understand our role and the problems that our societies face.?

We won’t pay, We won’t pay was written by Italian playwright Dario Fo in 1974. Tickets for the show are fifteen dollars each and are available at Mala’s, Venus Photos and Records and the actors. The curtain goes up at eight tomorrow night at the University of the West Indies auditorium with additional performances scheduled for Friday and Saturday nights.