Forum Theatre Project 2016-2018

National Tour: October-November 2018

Pilot Tour: October 2016

Director and Writer: Patrick Morris

The Great Austerity Debate is an interactive forum theatre play, following the story of Megan K. as she juggles low-paid work, ever-deeper debt, two kids and a fancy new red handbag.

After watching the play, audiences are invited to imagine different outcomes for the characters, and see their ideas played out by the actors.  Every audience brings new responses, new interventions and new endings, making each performance unique.

Entertaining, inspiring and always surprising, The Great Austerity Debate brings burning real-life questions to the stage and audiences get to bring the answers. We worked again with our 2 academic collaborators, Dr Mia Gray and Professor Susan Smith from Cambridge University.  Go to our Ideas Stage page for a fuller story of this project.

If you’ve only got a moment, here’s a couple of responses from audience members in  Shirebrook, Derbyshire

Here’s a film from the pilot project, October-November 2016.

Our 2018 tour was made possible by a grant from Arts Council England.  We also worked in partnership with a number of organisations, including: Junction Arts in Chesterfield, Spot-On Touring in the North-West, Eastern Angles and Storey’s Field Community Centre in our own region.  Further support for the tour came from Bolsover District Council, West Suffolk District Council and the University of Cambridge.

All stills photography by Andrew Wilkinson www.andrewwilkinsonphotography.com