Bringing together 7:84, a company formed by John McGrath to produce popular, politically-committed theatre, and Dario Fo, a writer devoted to producing popular, politically-committed theatre, is a stroke of genius. Andy Arnold's production, as aware of its political situation as it is of the audience to whom it is presented, deserves nothing less than resounding cheers.
Antonia gets involved in a protest against rising prices at the supermarket, which ends in mass theft by an army of housewives. She and her friend Margherita conceal the spoils from their law-abiding husbands. The pressure of poverty, rising unemployment, police brutality and sheer hunger eventually persuades the men to support their wives in defiance of the capitalist powers that be.
It doesn't sound like a barrel of laughs. But from the desperate urge to conceal huge piles of stolen groceries in one tiny kitchen, a farce begins cranking into gear. Add several comedy policemen (played by the same actor) and seemingly endless fake pregnancies (actually bags of veg) and the comic motor is racing.
Under Arnold's direction, the cast scale the heights of such nonsense with delicious brio. He has an unchallenged ear for Fo's rhythms, which make the audience laugh until it is difficult to breathe, then bring in political analysis almost as light relief. Although the shafts of hope represented by this political resolve are often genuinely uplifting, they do sometimes get rattled off a little brusquely, in order to get back to the gags. Still, this is political comedy of the first order, which does justice to the memory of John McGrath. There can be no higher praise.
· Touring Scotland until March 22.
