Political Protest Research

I am doing my political protest on the government cuts to the NHS. To make the piece poignant, my group and I have to research the specific details of the cuts and who and what they are effecting.

• By this year, 2015, the NHS were meant to have found £20 billion worth of cuts. 
• £1 billion of the £1.4 billion saved was claimed back by the treasury.
• Funding for NHS may directly increase and yet shortages in areas such as social care causes consequences that put a strain on the NHS. 
• The original £2.8 billion put aside for councils to spend on public health in 2015/2016 are going to be cut by 7% due to new plans to make further cuts of £20 million. 
• There are growing suspicions that the NHS is slowly being privatised. 

These five facts are crucial to creating a political piece- as a stimulus and to make the piece accurate in its message. Building on the privatisation debate, we came up with the idea for a 'Tory NHS Tuck Shop.' The concept is built on a belief that the Tories are selling our health to private companies and making our welfare a lottery based on where you live and your financial standings. Therefore we used the factors of the space- the big crowd, the loud noise and the atmosphere of all the different groups shouting, to create a market place atmosphere. This fits well with our idea to create a 'market' selling off every day medicines and equipment for extortionate prices. We believed this to be an immersive experience for the audience, transporting them to a dystopia in which medicines they take for granted are being sold for unachievable prices. It is a glance down the path we may be on if the NHS crisis is allowed to continue.

In-cooperated within our 'Tory NHS Tuck Shop' and other elements of our piece, are Brechtian  techniques such as signs. We want to use signs to create a sense of irony about the piece, for example; 'half price sale- while cuts last' stuck on the tuck shop shop-front  and one of the begging doctors sign will read 'need money for drugs- NHS drugs.' Adding in signs like this not only takes inspiration for our theatre practitioner Brecht, but enforces his aim to make people think. Playing and twisting words will catch the audiences attention and make them think twice about our message.