A cross between the Pink Panther and Birds of a Feather, this frantic fast-paced comedy spirals into mayhem and lunacy with every given opportunity. Based on a solid script written by Dario Fo, the play is set in Italy during a period of social unrest. It opens with two housewives laden down with shopping that they’ve “liberated” from the local supermarket during a riot. In a feeble attempt to hide the truth from they’re law abiding husbands the woman concoct a plan to explain where they got the food, which inevitably gets them into more trouble and starts a chain of events that lead them down a rabbit hole of idiotic mishaps.
To make it more interesting the police are out to catch anyone connected to the looting and aren’t giving up easily. And to add to the confusion they all talk with cockney accents. On paper this play sounds like a hoot but in reality it was poorly presented and felt amateurish.
The jokes were delivered but not well received, as the actors lacked sufficient comic timing to handle an accelerated play of this magnitude. The political undertones were all but lost and the set was shaky at best. A small handful of an already humble audience deserted this leaky ship, and may I suggest you do the same unless you want to get wet.
1/5
James Ferdinando
