Review: Counted *

As a piece of theatre, this is an interesting lecture. Or perhaps an article in the Guardian.

Labelled a documentary-play, it does not earn its title. Clearly it is something that has been documented, but the sense of play is startlingly absent. The premise of Counted – it does not have a story – is based on research carried out in Yorkshire.

Yorkshire folk – a community youth worker from Harehills, a group of single mothers in Bramley – are interviewed by a political researcher, played by Simon Poland. The researcher wants to talk to them about the buzzword of the last few months: voting – why they do it, why they don't, what it means to them.

Poland plays the interviewer as some dusty, dull, entirely out of touch with reality, pompous, patronising dullard. As our guide into the interviewees and their stories, he is utterly unlikeable. That the play opens with this character welcoming us in to the concept of this docu-play is a mis-step from which the performance never recovers.

In the end Counted is a series of interviews presented on stage one after another. Some are interesting, some are funny, others insightful, but that does not a piece of theatre make.

The good thing is the cast, playing the interviewees, who provide witty and bold performances all round – despite an appearance of being woefully under-directed.