There is no payment!

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There is no payment! is a farce by the Italian writer and Nobel laureate for literature Dario Fo , which was first published in 1974 in Milan under the original title Non si paga! Non si paga! has been published. The comedy, divided into two acts, is set in Milan in the 1970s. The German-language premiere was in Frankfurt am Main in 1976, the German-language first edition of the comedy was published in 1977 by Rotbuch Verlag in Berlin , based on a translation by Peter O. Chotjewitz .

characters

Antonia

Antonia is characterized by her authoritarian, imperious and resolute manner. She is a worker with evident communist tendencies. When procuring food, it does not shy away from robbing the supermarket within a mass dynamic, with frequent reference to the unscrupulousness of the capitalists .

Giovanni

In contrast to this, it is for Giovanni, Antonia's husband, who also advocates a communist way of thinking, “important to distinguish himself from the lumpen proletariat ”, the “uneducated”. Honesty is the top priority for him. For a change in the social way of thinking, he categorically rules out violent protests and revolts; he believed that changes should be brought about through parliament and the workers' unions.

Margherita

Margherita is friends with Antonia. She is almost the exact opposite of Antonia. In contrast to this, Magherita is reserved, shy and is easily convinced of Antonia's plans. By and large, she appears without any initiative and appears apolitical compared to the other people.

Luigi

Luigi is Margherita's husband and is a close friend of Giovanni. He takes a similar view as Antonia. He also supports the revolts and speaks out openly against the company in which he works.

Further

In addition, there are four other people who are all played by an actor according to the stage directions in the work . On the one hand there is the sergeant, who at first seems to be performing his duties with rigor. But after a short conversation with Giovanni, his true opinion , which is also left-wing , becomes clear. He regrets that he has to act as a handyman, so to speak, of the companies; he is reluctant to carry out controls in the workers' apartments. The Carabiniere , played by the same actor, is in contrast to the sergeant. He tries with all means to enforce the law of the employers without taking the workers into account. In more the undertaker occur, the fact is out to do his work in peace, as well as an old man ( age ). This is Giovanni's slightly confused father.

action

The plot begins with Antonia and Margherita bringing loads of groceries from a nearby supermarket to Antonia's apartment. Fearing Giovanni, they hide the unpaid goods. In a conversation between the two of them, we learn that there has been a riot and that the women in the entire residential area, with the help of some workers, have robbed the supermarket. After Margherita leaves, Giovanni comes and also reports a revolt in the canteen of his company. Since he couldn't eat anything because of it, he asked Antonia to cook something for him. Since she could only take animal feed from the shop, Giovanni indignantly refuses. Antonia then goes.

Shortly afterwards, the sergeant comes in, who has to carry out house searches in the residential area because of the events in the supermarket. There is a discussion between him and Giovanni about justice and the political system. After a short conversation, the sergeant reveals to Giovanni that he suffers from having to adapt despite revolting opinions. In the next scene - the sergeant has left - Antonia returns, the two of them talk about the sergeant's strange behavior. Shortly afterwards, Margherita also enters the apartment again, who has tied the stolen things around her stomach so that it looks as if she is pregnant.

When the carabiniere also enters, a grotesque happening begins. To prevent the carabiniere from searching, Antonia Margherita encourages them to fake a premature birth. Antonia and the Carabiniere then leave to take Margherita to the hospital. Giovanni is alone for a short time until Luigi enters. This also tells of a revolt by the workers on the train, who defended themselves against the fare increase. When Giovanni tells him about the pregnancy, Luigi is irritated. Both then want to go to the hospital.

At the beginning of the second act, Antonia and Margherita, who have been let go by the paramedics, enter the apartment. Her two men - in search of the women - witness a truck accident. The truck was loaded with groceries. First, both want to help. But then a discussion about stealing develops. Giovanni insists on honesty and the demarcation from the Lumpenproletariat. But when Luigi tells him that the factory in which they both work is to be closed, Giovanni's view changes. Both go from the scene of the accident packed with bags. The carabiniere who saw her is pursuing her. But they go to Luigi's apartment. The carabiniere, however, who goes into Giovanni's apartment, finds the two women there again. He now sees through the story of the pregnancy. But due to a fairy tale made up by Antonia, the Carabiniere believes he is blind and falls over shortly afterwards. The women think they killed him. Meanwhile, the two men met an undertaker in the stairwell who had a coffin for a deceased person from the house with him. However, since no one is to be found, he leaves the coffin to the two men, who stow the bags there in order to bring them to Giovanni's apartment. Once there, they try to put the coffin in a cupboard. You do not notice that the apparently dead Carabiniere is already there. Then Giovanni's father comes with an eviction notice for Giovanni's apartment and food. When Giovanni wants to confess that he too has stolen and goes to the cupboard in which the coffin is hidden, the carabiniere suddenly wakes up and leaves the apartment, completely confused. At the end, a chorus of all the people repeats the words previously spoken by Giovanni: “ A world in which one notices that there is still a sky ... and plants that bloom ... that there is even spring ... and Girls who laugh and sing. And if one day you have to die, an old, exhausted mule does not die, no, a person dies, a person who has lived freely and contentedly with other free people. "

literature

  • Dario Fo : There is no payment! a farce / with an introduction by the author and a comment by Helga Jungblut and Peter O. Chotjewitz: Dario Fo and his theater (original title: Non si paga! Non si paga! Translated from the Italian by Peter O. Chotjewitz), In: Rotbuch -Taschenbuch, Volume 18, Rotbuch , Hamburg 1997 (German first edition 1990), ISBN 3-88022-028-X .

filming

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dario Fo: There is no payment! , short film review on cinema.de (accessed on September 5, 2010)