Casting Announced For WAITING FOR LEFTY Zoom Production

Waiting for Lefty is a well-known piece of agitprop theatre, written in 1935 when America was in the midst of the Great Depression and saw no light at the end of the tunnel. The play centres around a cab drivers' union meeting, the drivers are fiercely debating strike action to get a living wage. The union meeting is punctured by four vignette scenes, where the personal costs of capitalism on the ordinary man are laid bare.

Emerging from the global pandemic, the UK faces a deep recession that could rival the Great Depression, with unemployment expected to triple, and, like in 1935, we're struggling to see the light. Against this backdrop, Waiting for Lefty holds a spotlight up to our current society and challenges us to ask why, in 2021, is capitalism still inflicting such a high personal cost on the ordinary man?

Transporting the play to 2021, the cab drivers conduct their union meeting on Zoom, with audience members becoming part of that meeting, making them participants as well as observers in a cross between theatre and fly-on-the-wall documentary.

Each night the play is followed by a panel discussion from thought leaders in Trade Unionists, academics, authors and journalists including Yaseen Aslam and James Farrar (ADCU President and General Sec, the lead claimants in the recent Supreme Court case involving Uber), Stella Creasy MP, Sarah Jaffe (author of Work Won't Love You Back), and Alex Andreou (Actor, political commentator and Oh God What Now podcast co-host). These experts will discuss themes in the play and how they relate to modern socio-economic theory and practice, and how the UK (and even the world) might move forward positively.

Cast:

Charles Aitken

Philip Arditti

Lisa Caruccio Came

Phil Cheadle

Tim Delap

Mariah Gale

John Moraitis

Ian Redford

Rhys Rusbatch

Rebecca Scroggs

Post Show Panellists:

Alex Andreou (Actor, political commentator and Oh God What Now podcast host )

Stella Creasy (Labour MP Walthamstow)

Miatta Fahnbulleh (New Economics Foundation)
Yaseen Aslam (ADCU President)

James Farrar (ADCU General Sec)

Sarah Woolley (BFAWU General Sec)
Paul Fleming (Equity General Sec)
Sarah Jaffe (Author of Work Won't Love You Back)
Dr. Lucy Burke (Prof of Cultural and Critical Theory at MMU and Union Activist)

Luke Hildyard (High Pay Centre)
Eve Livingstone (Journalist and Author of Make Bosses Pay)
Mathew Lawrence (Common Wealth)
Danisha Kazi (Positive Money)
Paddy Bettington (CLASS)

Daniel Vockins (Executive Director, New Economy Organisers Network)

Tickets £22 per device, £11.50 for students, £5 for members of any union - with the code: UNION05.
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/waiting-for-lefty-tickets-131668952381