The Sydney Opera House is one of the most iconic venues in Australia to watch theatre. Playing host to the Sydney Theatre Company’s latest production, “No Pay? No Way!”, the Opera House has put on some interesting experimental plays in recent months and this was no exception. A farcical play translated from Dario Fo’s “Non Si Paga! Non Si Paga!”, the play centres around Antonia (played by Mandy McElhinney) who incites a riot to steal groceries to combat the cost of living crisis after supermarkets have doubled their prices. In light of the supermarket inquiry occurring at the moment, the timing couldn’t be more apt. 

Having premiered in a truncated 2020 season, the play felt even more poignant in 2024. After Antonia convinces her friend Margherita (played by Emma Harvie) to help her hide the groceries as the police (all of whom are played by the very talented Aaron Tsindos) come to investigate. As they come up with a pregnancy cover story to hide the groceries, they realise they must keep up their ruse to their husbands, Luigi (played by Roman Delo) and Giovanni (played by Glenn Hazeldine), who of course, are beyond shocked that their wives are pregnant. This leads to a farcical and even, pantomimical two and a half hours where everyone is trying to cheat each other and evade each other, even when ultimately everyone has the same goal (except for maybe the police inspector). 

There were portions of this play which were some of the funniest I have ever seen on the stage. Some of the gags, like eating dog food on the stage are incredibly well done and had the audience in stitches. A lot of the humour was very incisive and clever as well, with the writing of the jokes towards the end of the first act being truly superlative. 

The quality of the end of the first act led to high expectations for the start of the second act but some of the humour was lost as the show recommenced. The jokes tended to be dragged out a little too long and the pacing of the show felt slightly off. The plot also laboured somewhat and the writing lost some of its lustre. In the middle of the play was a metatheatrical break as the set changed, which attempted to bring the industrial action that play is directly concerned with to the forefront of the stage. This was an interesting idea but perhaps could have been executed a little better (in a shorter space of time). 

In the end, the delivery of the message felt a little heavy-handed and unedifying (although to a degree, that was the point of the show) and the overall theme of class divides felt somewhat obscured by the humour and the pacing. The disconnect of Australian and Italian accents in the final song was also a little off putting.

What made this play stand out was the quality of the set. Charles Davis designed a masterpiece, with the set revolving to reflect the different houses that were seen in the production. It was cleverly done and highly realistic in its design. The direction to include the stage crew in parts of the production was also very welcome. 

The quality of the acting throughout was also sublime. All five actors made every scene their own and delivered their performances with the requisite gusto and pizzazz needed for comedic roles. Given some of the issues with the source material of the play, they did a superb job to elevate the production with fantastic comedic timing and expertise. 

Overall, this is a play with strong potential and some hilarious moments however, the pacing issues in the second half means it falls a little bit flat where it matters, leading to a somewhat unsatisfying conclusion. The acting performances and the set design make this play worth seeing alone as do the hilarious moments throughout the first act and with some tweaking, I am sure this will be a play to watch in the future. 

Rating: ★★★★

No Pay? No Way! plays at the Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House until 11^th May. For more information, click here

Photo credit: Daniel Boud