A fascinating project has recently wrapped up in London. A group of journalists from The Guardian newspaper, collaborated with theatre makers from the Royal Court Theatre to make a series of six ‘micro’ State of the Nation plays plays, running under the banner, Off The Page.  There is a video introduction to the series here.

Each of the plays explores a different topic. Britain Isn’t Eating satirizes the UK government’s approach to food banks and the ‘feckless poor’. Devil in the Detail explores the emotional relationship that women have with clothes. PPE examines the power of politicians’ physical gestures – and the failure to engineer real change after the financial crisis.The Funereal Game explores racial tensions on and off the football pitch and the idea that sport embodies the country’s identity crisis. Finally, Groove is in the Heart examines the changing relationship with music and technology. For each of the plays there is a making of article which you can click-through to via the links above. The videos of the plays are embedded there too. Whilst obviously written about UK orientated issues, the themes are definitely global and all the pieces are really interesting.

Each play used the same basic staging, but designed individually. A photo montage of the different designs makes interesting viewing here.