100% London - Rimini Protokoll (Germany)

Synopsis

In a world bombarded with ?lies, damned lies and statistics' 100% London tells the truth of modern London life in a way graphs or pie-charts never can. 100% London has evolved from the Rimini Protokoll's theatre group's ?reality trend' practice of working with non-professionals. Spreading throughout London over three months, 100% London began with the casting of one member who had to recruit another in 24 hours, who then recruited another and so on - all according to specific criteria of age, gender and ethnicity mirroring the demographic make-up of one of the world's most diverse cities. 100 people representing a cross section of London's 7.8 million population are brought together to tell their stories on stage. In this fascinating and unique performance, Rimini Protokoll have created a living, breathing portrait of London that is far from average.

Latest User Review

Tony Glazier - 3 July 2012:

The Empire ran this show featuring 100 ordinary Londoners who had been picked to represent the population, e.g. 59 white British, four Pakistani and two Chinese. They were also selected to include married with no children and married with children etc. so they covered ethnic origions as well as demographic aspects. Of course in such a small number of people there will never be an exact match but it was as good as could be obtained within a short time. Getting people to stand on a stage in front of 500 people is also not easy! The lady in the wheelchair was not picked because of that! She was one of the Indians but broke her foot after being recruited. Bad luck for her but it enabled the show to have a wheelchair user! They were subjected to a tirade of questions about their views on different topics including wearing a burka in public, who has not had sex for the last year and who has saved a life. There were however some very obvious questions which were never asked like “Who smokes?” or “Who had sex last night?” But regardless of what anyone may say about it, the fact is that the audiences were about 550, 500 and 600 for the three performances so it was a very popular show! But as might be expected, the audience was virtually all white, 30-60 years old and one would guess Guardian/Observer readers. Quite serious people too! There was not a single laugh when one of the 100 said he lived in Neasden! The show was accompanied by a small booklet which could be bought for an extra pound and this showed photos of all the 100 with about 30 words cleverly picked from their casting interviews to give an insight into their personality. However, there is not much chance of anything like this ever being repeated in the UK. It was a one off and if you missed it then thats for ever! Tony Glazier ...

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