The Vote is a 2015 play written by James Graham and centering on the 2015 UK general election. It ran for two months in the spring of 2015 at the Donmar Warehouse - with people winning tickets by a ballot system - and was broadcast live on TV on the evening of the general election. Having close to 40 characters, most of which appear for a couple of minutes at most, The Vote contained one of the largest casts in recent London theatre history.
The play focuses on a voting booth situated in a primary school in London, where the three presiding officers struggle to get through the last 90 minutes of the vote dealing with various crises. The worst of these is a situation where one voter appears to have voted twice and the play details the lengths the three of them go to to rectify their mistake while also trying to keep it hidden.
This play provides examples of:
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All-Star Cast: Since the play only had a limited run, it was littered with stars such as Catherine Tate, Mark Gatiss, Judi Dench, and even Jude Law in an uncredited cameo. - Attention Whore: The character of Kirsty definitely has shades of this.
- Berserk Button: Stephen's is people disrespecting the electoral system.
- Big "NO!": Stephen gives one when one too many people ask him to sort out their problems.
- Blatant Lies: When the three presiding officers have to trick Kirsty's neighbour about the fate of her ballot paper. Played With in that she doesn't believe them for a moment.
- Break the Cutie: Poor Stephen...
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Audiences were encouraged to cast a vote into the ballot box onstage before each performance.
- Broken Pedestal: Stephen comes to see himself as this by the end.
- Butt-Monkey: Again, poor Stephen... To a lesser extent, Mr Robson is also this, having a Fiery Redhead wife and being something of an Upper-Class Twit.
- The Cameo: Since no one except the main trio and a few others are onstage for more than a few minutes, plenty of parts count as this. The prize has to go to Jude Law, however, whose sole purpose was to walk onstage and promptly get pushed off again.
- The Chessmaster: Kirsty attempts to be this and fails. Badly.
- Crapsack World: It's subtle but the play is certainly somewhat pessimistic on the state of things and more on the public's willingness to change it.Laura: It's not often you get to wonder what tomorrow's going to be.Kirsty: It will be what it always is. Unfair, just a different kind.
- Deadpan Snarker: A lot of people get their moments.
- Downer Ending: Stephen confesses to voter fraud and is presumably arrested, possibly along with Kirsty and Laura.
- Election Day Episode
- Fiery Redhead: Kirsty. Also Mrs Robson (played by Rosalie Craig).
- Foreshadowing: Early on, there's a brief conversation between Stephen, Kirsty and Laura in which Kirsty and Laura each try to shift the blame for a viral video taken of Kirsty that morning. This foreshadows their numerous attempts to avoid the blame for the extra vote being cast.
- Have a Gay Old Time: An In-Universe example: when Kirsty's son Lucas is attempting to barter with his parents on the price of his vote, Alan the Conservative Aide says that he "has a lot of spunk". When Lucas' response is a Flat "What", Alan complains that he's apparently not supposed to say "spunk" anymore.
- Heroic BSoD: Stephen goes through several.
- Implausible Deniability: Stephen, Kirsty and Laura all suffer from this by the end of the play.
- Large Ham: In spades. Paul Chahidi as the Independent candidate probably wins, though.
- Language Barrier: One of the voters is Portuguese who understands limited English.
- Metaphorgotten: Happens several times as Kirsty and Laura try to disguise their conversations about the extra vote by referring to a jar of sweets. Naturally one or both keep messing it up.
- Mood Whiplash: The play moves several times from farce to drama.
- Morality Pet: Stephen attempts to be this to Laura and Kirsty.
- Never My Fault: Kirsty and Laura each spend most of the play displaying this attitude and trying to pass the blame onto the other. At the very end, however, Stephen's breakdown prompts Kirsty to admit her part in it all. Laura doesn't.
- Noodle Incident: The incident with Kirsty breaking down the door to the school. Apparently a cat was somehow involved as well.
- Oh, Crap!: Displayed by everyone as they discover the existence of the extra vote.
- Only Sane Man: Stephen starts as this. By the end, it's the police officer and Alan, the Conservative aide.
- Precision F-Strike: By Judi Dench, no less.Mrs. Metcalffe: It's all. So. Simple! Here you all are, fucking about when it's all so simple!
- Reality Subtext: Not so much "subtext"; the play was written, performed (and broadcast) to coincide with the 2015 general election.
- Refuge in Audacity: The trio come up with increasingly bizarre methods of trying to keep the potential voter fraud a secret.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: The entire main conflict turns out to have been this since the initial extra vote was never actually cast.
- Shaming the Mob: Stephen completely breaks down near the end and yells at everyone present for their various instances of misbehaving. They are all suitably chastened.
- Shout-Out: The play makes reference to quite a few elements of pop culture that was popular in 2015. The two most noticeable are probably the newborn granddaughter of the Scottish caretaker being named Nicola (after Nicola Sturgeon, the leader of the Scottish National Party), and Kirsty telling Laura to "do a Frozen and let it go".
- Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism: Zigzags all over the place as various characters embody pretty much every possible stop on the scale, but the play itself seems to sit just slightly on the "cynicism" end.
- Technology Marches On: Relatively mild but voters keep recognising Kirsty from a Vine her son made.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Kirsty and Laura's relationship seems to have shades of this. There's tension from the start and it only gets worse as the crisis develops.
- Token Good Teammate: All three are basically acting in the way they think is best, but Stephen is by far the most reluctant to engage in crime and the one who ultimately snaps and tells the truth.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: The poll clerks are all just trying to rectify their mistake and make sure the vote levels out. Their methods of going about it, however, (especially Kirsty's) really aren't the most level-headed choices they could be making...
- Wide-Eyed Idealist: A couple of the voters seem to be this. Also arguably Stephen starts off as this.
