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The power of farce
PAUL FOLEY asks playwright Marieke Hardy about her adaptation of Dario Fo’s classic working-class comedy
LEARNING CURVE: Australian playwright Marieke Hardy and the 1998 Australian waterfront dispute [Eva Rinaldi/Tirin/CC]

AS MARX said “History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce”. 

In early 1970s, Italy — like much of Europe — was in the grip of an economic crisis. Inflation was out of control, while wages were being slashed. Civil unrest and industrial disputes had gripped the country. Against this backdrop, Dario Fo and Franca Rame wrote their biting satirical farce Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay!

Not only is the work a visceral attack on the capitalist system, it is hilarious.  

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