The Vote

The Vote (2015)

On 7 May, churches, school halls, and back rooms of community centres will be turned into polling stations, staffed by council workers and volunteers. A church polling station is the backdrop for a real-time play for theatre and TV, called The Vote, staged at the exact moment in which the action is set - the last 90 minutes before polls close.

Date of release
2015-05-07
TMDB
8.4 / 10 (6)
Runtime
1h 27m
Genres
Comedy, Drama, TV Movie
Director
Josie Rourke, Tony Grech-Smith

Casting

Interesting facts

The Vote is a 2015 play by British playwright James Graham. The play received its world premiere at the Donmar Warehouse as part of their spring 2015 season, where it ran from 24 April to 7 May 2015. Directed by Josie Rourke and set in a fictitious London polling station on election night 2015, the play was broadcast live on UK television channel More4 on the night of the election.

Production history

The Vote was written by playwright James Graham. On 3 November 2014, it was announced the play would premiere as part of the Donmar Warehouse's spring 2015 season and would begin previews at the Donmar Warehouse, London on 24 April with an official opening, and final night on 7 May 2015. Tickets for the play's short run were made available through a ballot.

The Vote is set in a polling station in Lambeth, during the final 90 minutes of polling for the 2015 general election on 7 May 2015, meaning it was the first ever play broadcast live at the exact time it was set. The broadcast attracted 555,000 viewers at its peak, making it the most viewed production in the history of the Donmar Warehouse.

The play featured an ensemble cast of around 40, including Catherine Tate, Mark Gatiss, Timothy West, Nina Sosanya and Bill Paterson. Judi Dench also starred alongside her real life daughter Finty Williams for the first time, playing a mother and daughter and marking her first performance at the theatre since 1976.

A typical performance ran 90 minutes, with no interval.

Describing the live broadcast, director Rourke said, "This is a unique opportunity for the Donmar to make a small theatre feel very big", whilst writer Graham added that he hoped to illuminate the "diverse, diligent and often hilarious individuals" who turn the "unglamourous" settings of polling stations into "places where history is made".

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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