Future Plans: Privatisation Blues

Banner Theatre & Ground Zero Productions: Privatisation Blues

A new project for public service trade unions and their members

Birmingham-based Banner Theatre and Canada’s Ground Zero Productions of Edmonton are planning a new international multimedia theatre production (with educational workshops) about the global economic crisis and the threats to public services in both Canada and the UK from governments bent on using privatisation to “mend” broken national economies.

Banner and Ground Zero have been working with trade unions for decades, making working-class experience the core of their productions and touring their shows to community and trade union audiences to build campaigns of resistance, raise awareness and understanding, and win over people’s hearts and minds.

Banner and Ground Zero will create the show using real-life experience from the UK and Canada, featuring stories from public sector unions in both countries. Each segment of the new show will be about 15 minutes long, blending interview clips with songs in a world-music style. We are starting with two stories – one from Britain and one from Canada – and the final show will comprise five or six stories in total. In 2011 we aim to tour the show in the UK with a later tour in Canada.

Some of the songs, including video ‘actuality’, will be produced in advance as a music video for distribution on the web, via YouTube and union websites.

For more information and/or to discuss this exciting new project contact Banner’s Artistic Director Dave Rogers on 0787 884 8695 or 0121 682 0730 or by email

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