Darkroom Theatre Company started as owner of Darkroom Espresso, Will Davies, and Drama Practitioner, Olly Webb, harboured an insatiable desire to perform and produce more theatre in Swindon.
Since inception, the company has grown to incorporate musicians, artists, seamstresses and many more. Their debut performance this December will be Dario Fo’s often forgotten classic Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay! at the Shoebox Theatre.
1974: Inflation has reached an all-time high. The police are fascists. The government doesn’t care about the people. Action must be taken.
Meet Antonia, loving wife to Giovanni the Communist, and her friend Margherita, equally loving wife to Luigi the Communist.
Having started a riot in the local supermarket and ‘liberating’ groceries, they frantically try to hide the goods. But with police sniffing around, the Pope breathing down their necks, and their less than understanding husbands wreaking havoc, only a miracle can save them in this frenetic farce.
On starting Darkroom Theatre Company, Olly explained: “Theatre in Swindon is on a rise, and I am lucky enough to be involved with a few of the established companies myself. But with Darkroom we want to produce theatre with a message.
“Darkroom Theatre is our excursion into the world of political satire, and we’re hoping to bring some of the issues that are becoming more and more prevalent in society today to the stage.”
“I wanted to do Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay! because it covers a lot of issues which are relevant right now. In a world of Brexit, Trump, Putin and Kim Jong Un who knows what is going to happen? I think it’s important we look at ordinary people and characters that we as an audience can relate to. So this story is about a normal pair of women in Italy, 1975; it is their situation that is extraordinary, not them.”
Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay! Runs on December 15 to December 16 at the Shoebox Theatre.
For further information, and to purchase tickets, click here.
For any other details please contact Olly Webb at darkroomtheatrecompany@gmail.com