Line #9 Theatre/TheVote


1	''The Vote'' is a 2015 play written by James Graham and centering on the 2015 UK general election. It ran for two months in the spring of 2015 at the Donmar Warehouse - with people winning tickets by a ballot system - and was broadcast live on TV on the evening of the general election. Having close to 40 characters, most of which appear for a couple of minutes at most, ''The Vote'' contained one of the largest casts in recent London theatre history.
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3	The play focuses on a voting booth situated in a primary school in London, where the three presiding officers struggle to get through the last 90 minutes of the vote dealing with various crises. The worst of these is a situation where one voter appears to have voted twice and the play details the lengths the three of them go to to rectify their mistake while also trying to keep it hidden.
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6	!! This play provides examples of:
7	* AllStarCast: Since the play only had a limited run, it was littered with stars such as Creator/CatherineTate, Creator/MarkGatiss, Creator/JudiDench, and even Creator/JudeLaw in an uncredited cameo.
8	* AttentionWhore: The character of Kirsty definitely has shades of this.
9	* BerserkButton: Stephen's is people disrespecting the electoral system.
10	* BigNo: Stephen gives one when one too many people ask him to sort out their problems.
11	* BlatantLies: When the three presiding officers have to trick Kirsty's neighbour about the fate of her ballot paper. PlayedWith in that she doesn't believe them for a moment.
12	* BreakTheCutie: Poor Stephen...
13	* BreakingTheFourthWall: Audiences were encouraged to cast a vote into the ballot box onstage before each performance.
14	* BrokenPedestal: Stephen comes to see himself as this by the end.
15	* ButtMonkey: Again, poor Stephen... To a lesser extent, Mr Robson is also this, having a FieryRedhead wife and being something of an UpperClassTwit.
16	* TheCameo: Since no one except the main trio and a few others are onstage for more than a few minutes, plenty of parts count as this. The prize has to go to Creator/JudeLaw, however, whose sole purpose was to walk onstage and promptly get pushed off again.
17	* TheChessmaster: Kirsty attempts to be this and fails. ''Badly''.
18	* CrapsackWorld: It's subtle but the play is certainly somewhat pessimistic on the state of things and more on the public's willingness to change it.
19	-->'''Laura:''' It's not often you get to wonder what tomorrow's going to be.
20	-->'''Kirsty:''' It will be what it always is. Unfair, just a different kind.
21	* DeadpanSnarker: A lot of people get their moments.
22	* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Stephen confesses to voter fraud and is presumably arrested, possibly along with Kirsty and Laura.]]
23	* ElectionDayEpisode
24	* FieryRedhead: Kirsty. Also Mrs Robson (played by Rosalie Craig).
25	* {{Foreshadowing}}: Early on, there's a brief conversation between Stephen, Kirsty and Laura in which Kirsty and Laura each try to shift the blame for a viral video taken of Kirsty that morning. This foreshadows their numerous attempts to avoid the blame for the extra vote being cast.
26	* HaveAGayOldTime: An InUniverse example: when Kirsty's son Lucas is attempting to barter with his parents on the price of his vote, Alan the Conservative Aide says that he "has a lot of spunk". When Lucas' response is a FlatWhat, Alan complains that he's apparently not supposed to say "spunk" anymore.
27	* HeroicBSOD: Stephen goes through several.
28	* ImplausibleDeniability: [[spoiler:Stephen, Kirsty and Laura all suffer from this by the end of the play.]]
29	* LargeHam: In ''spades''. Paul Chahidi as the Independent candidate probably wins, though.
30	* LanguageBarrier: One of the voters is Portuguese who understands limited English.
31	* {{Metaphorgotten}}: Happens several times as Kirsty and Laura try to disguise their conversations about the extra vote by referring to a jar of sweets. Naturally one or both keep messing it up.
32	* MoodWhiplash: The play moves several times from farce to drama.
33	* MoralityPet: Stephen attempts to be this to Laura and Kirsty.
34	* NeverMyFault: Kirsty and Laura each spend most of the play displaying this attitude and trying to pass the blame onto the other. [[spoiler:At the very end, however, Stephen's breakdown prompts Kirsty to admit her part in it all. Laura doesn't.]]
35	* NoodleIncident: The incident with Kirsty breaking down the door to the school. Apparently a cat was somehow involved as well.
36	* OhCrap: Displayed by everyone as they discover the existence of the extra vote.
37	* OnlySaneMan: Stephen ''starts'' as this. By the end, it's the [[spoiler:police officer and Alan, the Conservative aide]].
38	* PrecisionFStrike: By ''Judi Dench'', no less.
39	-->'''Mrs. Metcalffe:''' It's [[PunctuatedForEmphasis all. So. Simple!]] Here you all are, ''fucking about'' when it's all so simple!
40	* RealitySubtext: Not so much "subtext"; the play was written, performed (and broadcast) to coincide with the 2015 general election.
41	* RefugeInAudacity: The trio come up with increasingly bizarre methods of trying to keep the potential voter fraud a secret.
42	* ShaggyDogStory: [[spoiler:The entire main conflict turns out to have been this since the initial extra vote was never actually cast.]]
43	* ShamingTheMob: Stephen completely breaks down near the end and yells at everyone present for their various instances of misbehaving. They are all suitably chastened.
44	* ShoutOut: The play makes reference to quite a few elements of pop culture that was popular in 2015. The two most noticeable are probably the newborn granddaughter of the Scottish caretaker being named Nicola (after Nicola Sturgeon, the leader of the Scottish National Party), and Kirsty telling Laura to "do a Frozen and let it go".
45	* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVsCynicism: Zigzags all over the place as various characters embody pretty much every possible stop on the scale, but the play itself seems to sit ''just'' slightly on the "cynicism" end.
46	* TechnologyMarchesOn: Relatively mild but voters keep recognising Kirsty from a Vine her son made.
47	* TeethClenchedTeamwork: Kirsty and Laura's relationship seems to have shades of this. There's tension from the start and it only gets worse as the crisis develops.
48	* TokenGoodTeammate: All three are basically acting in the way they think is best, but Stephen is by far the most reluctant to engage in crime [[spoiler: and the one who ultimately snaps and tells the truth.]]
49	* WellIntentionedExtremist: The poll clerks are all just trying to rectify their mistake and make sure the vote levels out. Their methods of going about it, however, (especially Kirsty's) really aren't the most level-headed choices they could be making...

Context Theatre / TheVote