The Italians call it autoriduzione. We call it stealing. But Dario Fo's 1974 farce was a response (or possibly an incitement) to the wave of popular protest that began with a group of Fiat workers refusing to pay increased bus fares and led to a whole sector of society helping itself.
The play begins with housewives Antonia and Margherita returning from a mission to liberate vegetables from the local supermarket. Yet their stick-in-the-mud husbands remain impervious to the kleptomania craze, forcing the women to conceal their stash in ever more compromising ways.
Add a couple of corrupt policemen, an undertaker and an old rogue in a bath chair, and you have a recipe for an evening that quickly descends into anarchy.
Karl Wallace, of physical comedy specialists Kabosh Theatre, provides a hyperactive production full of physical tics, outlandish sight gags and audience participation - at one point spectators are required to pass sacks of contraband goods over their heads.
A packed house gamely laps all this up with great cheer; and an energetic cast zealously explore new definitions of the word zany.
Phillipa Peak totters around in shiny stack-heeled boots like a character from Abigail's Party at 78 rpm; late replacement Jo Donnelly admirably negotiates the physical business with a script in one hand, and the multi-tasking Christopher Chilton spends the interval dressed in usherette's garb, selling pig's ears from the ice-cream booth.
Yet Fo's theatrical lunacy is primarily a vehicle for serious social debate, and it's hard to see precisely what we are protesting about here. Another few quid on beer and fags at the next budget? The price of fish? There's a branch of Sainsbury's directly opposite the Playhouse. But I don't think they'll need to worry about enraged theatregoers engaging in looting sprees just yet.
· Until February 26. Box office: 01332 363275.
