Staging the Democratic Deficit: Or, Three Uses of the Interview

This article attempts a partial archeology of the evolution of 'Counted', a verbatim play developed by the author with Look Left Look Right Theatre Company, which premiered at London's County Hall just before the 2010 UK General Election. A constituent part of the AHRC-funded 'Road to Voting' project, led by researchers at the University of Leeds, 'Counted' was assembled using the edited transcripts of interviews conducted with a cross-section of West Yorkshire voters about their affective relationships with electoral politics. The essay explores the dramaturgical challenges arising from this attempt to use social science 'data' as raw material for verbatim theatre, as well as considering broader questions around the stage representation of traditionally under-represented sections of the electorate.