Waiting for Lefty

Waiting for Lefty is a well-known piece of agitprop theatre, written in 1935 when America was in the midst of the Great Depression and saw no light at the end of the tunnel. The play centres around a cab drivers’ union meeting, the drivers are fiercely debating strike action to get a living wage. The union meeting is punctured by four vignette scenes, where the personal costs of capitalism on the ordinary man are laid bare. Emerging from the global pandemic, the UK faces a deep recession that could rival the Great Depression, with unemployment expected to triple, and, like in 1935, we’re struggling to see the light. Against this backdrop, Waiting for Lefty holds a spotlight up to our current society and challenges us to ask why, in 2021, is capitalism still inflicting such a high personal cost on the ordinary man?

Transporting the play to 2021, the cab drivers conduct their union meeting on Zoom, with audience members becoming part of that meeting, making them participants as well as observers in a cross between theatre and flyon-the-wall documentary. Each night the play is followed by a panel discussion.