FO/FAUX!

We Won’t Pay! We Won’t Pay!
by Dario Fo (tr. Ron Jenkins)
Directed by Artistic Director Susan E. Evans, and featuring David Ballog, Beatrice Basso, Craig Dickerson, Lindsey B. Jones and Matt Weimer.
& Premieres of Short Works Inspired by Fo
Directed by Meredith Friedman & Amy Kilgard


DATES: Friday, March 5: PROGRAM A GALA
Saturday March 6: PROGRAM B GALA
Sunday March 7 THROUGH March 21

SHOWTIMES: Wed-Sat evenings @ 8:00 p.m.;
Sunday evening, March 14 @ 7:00 p.m.
Sunday matinees March 7, 14 and 21 @ 2:00 p.m.
CLOSES: March 21

PROGRAM:
Act I: We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay! by Dario Fo (Ron Jenkins, trans.)

Act II-A: March 5 (post-show reception sponsored by the Italian Cultural Institute), March 7 (matinee), March 11, March 13, March 14 (evening), March 18, March 20
I Can If You Can by John Hutchinson
Difficulta by Jennifer Daly
Special Delivery from Heaven by Daniel Cartaina
Fo Pa by Charles E. Polly

Act II-B: March 6 (gala), March 10, March 12, March 14 (matinee), March 17, March 19, March 21
A Statement by Isaiah Dufort
The Report by Jeff Thompson
A Frozen Rabbit Head by Gene Mocsy
Safeway Encounter by Scott Munson

VENUE: Eureka Theatre Company (215 Jackson Street, San Francisco, CA)

TICKETS: $20 general admission. No one turned away at the door.
$25 Opening Night Gala
$15 tickets available for students/seniors and members of KQED, KTEH, and TBA.
Group rates available.
BOX OFFICE: (510) 568-4118 and brownpapertickets.com


Nobel laureate Dario Fo is a master of the political farce, truly “the people's jester.” His internationally acclaimed political satires target subjects like capitalism, imperialism and governmental corruption . These days every day brings news of layoffs, homelessness, school tuition hikes and rising prices, so the time seems ripe to reintroduce the Bay Area to Dario Fo’s very particular theatrical activist genius.

Just as Fo drew on the many styles -- the ancient forms of the Roman Saturnalia, commedia dell-arte, the medieval giullare performers of medieval Europe, and Italian storytellers, the fabulatori of his youth spent in the lake region in Lombardy, to develop his voice as a writer for the stage, in Act II of Eastenders’ FO/FAUX! our new writers will exploit a master playwright to develop their unique voices.

This is our third go-round of using a master playwright to inspire a new crop of theatre writers - previous outings have included Tenn in 2002! featuring The Long Goodbye by Tennessee Williams and new works (2002); and Pinteresque: featuring The Lover by Harold Pinter and new short works (2006). Our company playwrights Charles E. Polly, Isaiah Dufort, Jennifer Daly and Jeff Thompson were all featured prominently in Pinteresque, as was local San Jose playwright Scott Munson. As part of its ongoing commitment to mentor new playwrights, ERC is asking interested company members and up and coming Bay Area playwrights to create work inspired by We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay, to explore Fo's unusual blend of traditional style and revolutionary politics. Fo's 1974 We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay! is here presented in a fresh Americanized translation by Ron Jenkins. Jenkins' translation premiered at the American Repertory Theatre in 1999 starring Marisa Tomei; it's a perfect wacky blend of commedia and the Honeymooners, with all the classic farce elements of mistaken identity, physical humor, dead bodies and stock characters thrown into the mix, but with serious themes at its core - those of hunger and human dignity.

Charles E. Polly and his writers are currently developing the new works’ portion of FO/FAUX! as we speak in ERC’s ongoing playwrighting workshop, New Voices.

We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay! is directed by Susan E. Evans. We are presenting FO/ FAUX! in repertory so that audiences may enjoy skilled performers in a variety of roles. Eastenders company members will also be directing some of the new pieces.