A&E

A slapstick farce set against a backdrop of food riots and revolutionary foment in 1974 Italy, Dario Fo's We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay! might well resonate with today's anxieties: inflation on the rise, an economy on the brink and a government that sometimes seems oblivious to the concerns of the average citizen.

By attempting to draw those connections explicitly, however, the current production at Arizona State University ends up highlighting the differences between the play's original context and the world in which today's audience lives. In the end, this update succeeds as comedy but fails in its bid for relevance.

Directing a strong student cast, Professor William Partlan places the action in contemporary Phoenix, gussying up the script with references to cellphones, Sarah Palin and the Westward Ho.

It's hard enough to square those changes with the many jokes specific to Italian cultural history, as when the poor but proud Giovanni laments the affront of his employer firing four workers who have been drawing a paycheck long after their own demise. But it's even harder to understand why a 1974 farce, updated to 2008, should be performed as if it were a 1950s sitcom, complete with Three Stooges sound effects.

The conceptual mishmash is enough to give you whiplash, but the young actors make the most of it, particularly Brianna Quijada, in full I Love Lucy mode as Giovanni's wife, Antonia, whose cache of stolen groceries sets off a chain reaction of misunderstanding.

The comedic conventions on display are tried and true, but they clash with the contemporary Arizona setting, where the average city cop does not have an Irish accent and where nobody's grandfather grows vegetables out "behind the light-rail tracks."

The idea is to bring the world of the play home to the audience, but the rampant anachronisms merely underline the fact that, despite the ominous headlines, Phoenix in 2008 isn't really like Italy in 1974, with huge unemployment and hyperinflation. By the time the play ends - with a decidedly non-farcical call to action, if not arms - it feels far more removed from today's audience than if it had been performed as a straight-up period piece.

Reach the reporter at kerry.lengel@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4896.