THE PEOPLE VS. DEMOCRACY Set for The Free Word Centre, Now thru May 22

Think you can game the system? Writer/director Jamie Harper (Archipelago, Camden People's Theatre) and producer/designer Bern Roche Farrelly (Determine, The Yard Theatre) go beyond the spectacle of the upcoming general election to expose the realities of our political system in their new interactive theatre game The People Vs Democracy, which will reveal the complex compromises and brutal confrontations that keep governments in power for years after you have finished voting.

The game, produced by Hobo Theatre and Working Birthday in partnership with Article 19 and Kahoot Studios, will run April 30th - May 22nd, 2015 at The Free Word Centre. Press Night: May 1st 2015, 7.00pm.

Parliament and the Westminster village are only part of the greater power structures in the UK, with everyone from bankers to the media and even estate agents making important decisions in your life. The game places you, the player, within these political structures and invites you to take hold of these levers of power and wield their economic, social and emotional influence to try to change the world. By presenting a piece about the contemporary political landscape in a theatre game format, The People Vs Democracy creates a playful forum for exploring the machinations of power and experimenting with doing things differently.

Wrestling with an unstable economy and under siege from unfolding news events, you must coax, cajole, convince and bully the other players to further your own agenda. To out-manoeuvre your opponents you must understand how the system works and bend it to your ends. The People Vs Democracy gives you the freedom to reshape our political system and actively consider how your influence can extend much further than simply marking an X in a box.

DETAILS:

The People Vs Democracy

Presented by Article 19 at the Free Word Centre

Writer/Director Jamie Harper

Producer/Designer Bern Roche Farrelly

Political Consultant Charlotte Gill

Software Developer Kahoot Studios

April 30th 2015 - May 22nd 2015
30 Apr; 01, 07, 08, 21, 22 May, 19:00

90 mins

The Free Word Centre, 60 Farringdon Road, London EC1R 3GA £10/£7
Free Word Centre (freewordcentre.com)
Farringdon station (7 min walk) Chancery Lane station (11 min walk) Barbican station (13 min walk)

For more information, visit Hobo Theatre (hobotheatre.co.uk), Working Birthday (workingbirthday.com), The Free Word Centre (freewordcentre.com), Article 19 (article19.org), Kahoot Studios (www.kahootstudios.com), Facebook (facebook.com/ThePeopleVsDemocracy), and Twitter (twitter.com/hobotheatre)

Jamie Harper / Hobo Theatre - Director and writer Jamie Harper studied English Literature at the University of Sheffield and trained on the Directors' Course at LAMDA. His directing credits include The Hundred We Are at The Yard Theatre and Heaven in Berlin at Testbed1. In 2013, he successfully applied for a Churchill Trust Travelling Fellowship to research the intersection of participatory drama and serious games at the University of Miami. In 2014 he was commissioned to produce Archipelago, a game/drama about economics, diplomacy and climate change for Camden People's Theatre.

Bern Roche Farrelly / Working Birthday - Producer and visual designer Bern Roche Farrelly has a background as an arts manager and live artist. He holds an MA in Fine Art and has over ten years experience in producing a range of arts projects. In 2014 he wrote and directed Determine at The Yard Theatre and exhibited his artwork Appendicitis at Transition Gallery, London. Most recently, he produced Freud The Musical at The Space Theatre and worked as visual designer for Hobo's Theatre's game/drama, Archipelago at Camden People's Theatre.

Charlotte Gill / Article 19 - Charlotte Gill, ARTICLE19's Campaigner, has substantial political activism experience. She has worked on international and UK campaigns with organisations such as the Global Campaign for Education, Stamp Out Poverty, and 38 Degrees. For The People Vs Democracy, she has helped to develop the game's political content reflecting the real challenges of bringing about political change within the UK system.

Kahoot Studios - Kahoot Studios is a game development studio based in Dublin, Ireland. Eoghan O'Donovan and Erik Roche Farrelly founded the company in May 2012. At Kahoot Studios they create original IP and also provide a broad range of services to clients. They have worked on a wide variety of projects including console games, mobile games, web based games and game software for interactive artworks and dramas. They love to make and play games of all types, digital or otherwise and their company goal is simple: to make fun games!

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