Couscous Global Lab artists’ timely play opens
Couscous Global Lab participants Mimi Poskitt and Ben Freedman, otherwise known as Look left Look Right Theatre, timed the opening of their new work, Counted, immaculately. The documentary play, which Mimi and Ben were talking about at the Lab in May 2009, is about British democracy. In a country where people are more likely to vote for X-Factor than for the next Prime Minister, the piece comes right to Westminster’s doorstep, shedding light on why – in a world at war over democracy and in economic meltdown – so many people don’t vote. You can catch it until 22 May 2010 at The Debating Chamber, County Hall, London SE1. For booking details go to the Look Left Look Right website.
This year it’s expected we’ll see the lowest turnout in modern history. Look Left Look Right have spent the last year investigating, and it seems the problem isn’t political apathy. Quite the opposite. The company uses verbatim theatre to tell people’s moving and humorous stories, word-for-word, in a play about what it means to feel counted.
Staged in the magnificent former Debating Chamber at County Hall – where the walls echo with political history and windows look across the river to the Houses of Parliament – Counted is a timely, entertaining insight into our forgotten day-to-day relationship with democracy.
