Unitec double-bill brings iconic plays by Fo

Unitec Institute of Technology
29 September, 2011

Unitec double-bill brings iconic plays by Fo, Rodrigues to NZ

Audiences will laugh, cry, but ultimately relate to the social messages prophesised in two plays being staged by Unitec's year two acting students in October, says the school's head of acting, John Davies.

Italian Dario Fo's political satire Can't Pay! Won't Pay! and Brazilian playwright Nelson Rodrigues' iconic tragic comedy, Asphalt Kiss, feature in Unitec's double bill show which opens Friday night.

Veteran Kiwi actor, Paul Gittins (Shortland Street/Xena-Warrior Princess) directs Asphalt Kiss while Brazilian-born Unitec theatre studies tutor, Pedro Ilgenfritz (Alfonsina) directs Fo's masterpiece.
Davies says the plays are timely given recent world events - the News of the World saga and rising food prices brought about by the global recession - which have brought to light the core messages penned by Fo and Rodrigues in the early 1960s and 1970s.
"These two works, though stylistically different both deal with larger issues than just the comedy and drama of the situations the characters are in. In The Asphalt Kiss, an act of intimacy and compassion is exploited by an intrusive self serving media in order to solicit sales," says Davies.

"In Can't Pay! Won't Pay!, a group of woman stand up to the greed of the market place when they spontaneously riot against price gouging on food. Both these lines of action reveal themes that speak directly to central concerns of our modern world; the price of food and the price of freedom."
Year two acting student, Jason Wu, who starred in New Zealand feature film Matariki (2010), says being cast in Asphalt Kiss has been a rewarding experience and a challenge, not just to master "the emotions of his character, but the play's strong themes also".

Asphalt Kiss confronts current-day questions of homophobia and tabloid sensationalism in prophetic fashion. Dario Fo, a Nobel Prize winner in Literature in 1997, penned one of the most outrageous satirical comedies in his timeless classic, Can't pay! Won't Pay!
The eight-night season runs at Unitec Theatre on Carrington Rd at Unitec's Mt Albert Campus until Saturday, 8 October. Show times are 7pm and tickets are available at iTICKET.co.nz http://www.iticket.co.nz/events/20...11/sep/year-2-acting-plays-cant-pay-wont-pay-and-asphalt-kiss/ or call (09) 361 1000.

ENDS/

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