THE STATE WE'RE IN Comes to Camden People's Theatre

Camden People’s Theatre has announced the return of The State We’re In – a three-week festival exploring UK democracy, politics and the public realm, which will run from October 22nd - November 10th 2024. The festival will be the centrepiece of CPT’s Autumn Season and 30th anniversary programme. 

In 2015, Camden People’s Theatre staged a festival, the first incarnation of The State We’re In, in the year of a highly significant general election. In 2024, The State We’re In returns: three weeks of theatre and performance lifting the lid on Britain’s democracy, politics and public life. 

Who gets to run the UK, and who doesn’t? Who does our society support, and who does it leave behind? What will this significant change in leadership and political direction mean for our country? And where does the climate crisis fit in – as a source of despair, or of hope?

Headlined by Zakiyyah Deen’s extraordinary debut play Why A Black Woman Will Never Be Prime Minister. picked up by CPT after a sharing at Tara Arts in 2023, and shepherded by CPT towards full (co-)production as a Home Run commission.

Performed and written by Zakiyyah Deen, it explores black female participation in the political process, and black maternal health. Zakiyyah Is interested in wraparound engagement with young black women to explore their political engagement.

Set over nine months, this piece delves into intersectionality, British politics, and Black women's maternal health. Blending satire, spoken word, and narrative, Zakiyyah Deen’s debut play directly addresses the real reasons: Why A Black Woman Never Be Prime Minister.

The State We’re In will also feature penetrating new performances by Worklight Theatre, Andy Smith, Shybairn (originally commissioned by CPT in 2022) and Hacks

The festival aims to take the temperature of the UK as the new government prioritises the social/political issues that most need addressing. It also aims to reconnect to CPT's history of radicalism and political engagement and concern for social justice in its 30th anniversary year.

Other Festival performances:

The plays programmed for the festival have one common desire - to explore the current state of the UK - where are we after 14 years of Conservative rule, and what is the condition of our public realm, and the social bonds that should unite us as a country? What state are they in - and what does the new government need to do to repair them?

Across the span of the festival, there are shows about the economy (It’s the Economy, Stupid), the benefit system (The Mute Messiah), the care system (The Daisy Chain), political participation/representation (Andy Smith's Citizens’ Assembly), food banks (Carmen Collective’s The Food Bank Show), the climate crisis (Shybairn) and more. Offering audiences a new angle or way to engage with where the UK is now, where it’s been and what it’s becoming.

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