Looting during a state of panic is a common thing. When people are faced with stress and possible tragedy, the actions of individuals can be irrational. We see it happen world-wide, in historical and current events, media and literature. Dario Fo, a famous Italian actor and playwright focuses a lot of his work around struggle and exploitation. One of his larger works “We Won’t Pay! We Won’t Pay!” approaches the act of looting during a hunger and poverty crisis. Being such a relatable issue, we can relate his work to common modern issues in order to get a better understanding of the insanity that panic can cause. Natural disasters are perhaps the most outrageous events that could send entire communities into fright. Two episodes of looting relatable to Fo’s play is the looting faced during the two super storms Hurricane Sandy and Hurricane Katrina. Not only are the two events relevant to Fo’s work, but through them it is possible to place a modernized outlook on panic and what it creates.
The main idea of Fo’s play, “We Won’t Pay! We Won’t Pay!” is driven from the act of looting. Looting, as we know, is the act of stealing goods during war or riot. The protagonist in this play, Antonia, joins in a rebellion of women whom are stealing hundreds of dollars-worth of groceries due to poverty and price gouging. The financial background of the characters in this play, play a huge role on their actions. We see Antonia involve her close friend Margarita, and the immense amount of trouble they go through just to hide the fact that they’ve stolen the simplest of things. The setting and time period justify the characters actions for readers by in detail explaining issues with their husband’s jobs, labor issues in general, specific things the characters speak about and even the food kept in the house. Fo does an excellent job helping his reader understand how desperately deprived these characters are; Not only ar...