Capturing the counter culture

You could say many things about me but you cannot say I don't have a varied Cv. Among the many areas I have dabbled in there has been a lot retail and call centre related work. If you haven't worked in retail there are some things you will never understand like the extent to which it upsets staff when you come in shortly before closing and then linger like a bad smell in the shop while we're all dying to go home or how much it irks us when you or your offspring scatter stock about the shop with the happy assumption that someone is being paid to take care of it and most of all what Christmas is really like. Trust me it's not all sleigh bells and singing. I always like to get out and see new things and I have been clutching my copy of the imagine arts festival brochure since the launch night. It's creased and marked with the things I'm hoping to get to. High on that list was Katie O'Kelly's one woman show 'Counter Cultur€' I like seeing new plays so one immersed in an retail environment piqued my interest plus I was curious to see how it would play out as a one woman show. I've watched a few shorter one person plays and once had the privilege to see Conor Lovett, of the Gare St Lazare players, do a one man show of Beckett's Malone dies which was astoundingly good so I know they are difficult to execute but when done well they can capture your attention as well as any play with a full cast and detailed set. 

We arrived in Central hall shortly before the show began (we made it just in time due to my intense need for a theatre snack) and made our way to seats towards the back as my favourite couch was already taken. The set was pretty basic just an empty clothes rail and a chair so I will admit I was wondering how much could be done without much in the way of props. I soon found out. So here's the basic story, the play was set in large Dublin department store and the story was told from the perspective of several characters over one day in the store. They were;  a pushy assistant manager who follows orders, a young woman due to give birth in the next few weeks, her grandmother who is retiring that day, a polish woman who has been in the store a number of years and a security guard who's just keeping his head down and getting through the day. The story is also interspersed with interactions between the store manager and his lackey (the assistant manager) and hilarious training videos that are been shown to new recruits ( unseen ) to the store. 

As I said it all takes place over one day and is about the experience of the cast of characters in retail and their rights when management tries to push them into signing a new contract in which they would be effectively be on call and not guaranteed set hours on a given week plus the loss of several other entitlements most workers have as a given. Katie seamlessly slipped from one character to another using her two props in a surprising number of ways leaving you feeling like you were witnessing a full cast and a more elaborate set. I felt myself rallying along with the workers and sympathising with them as they dealt with management pressure and a sense of uncertainty about their entitlements and rights within the work environment. 
I felt she fully encapsulated the retail experience and her generic department store could easily have been any number of places that I have worked over the years. The play (which was also written by Katie O'Kelly ) was not just mere entertainment although if you wished to view it as that, it was a very entertaining show in it's own right but it was also thought provoking and likely to invite discussion on the rights of the modern worker and standards within our workplaces. The zero hour contract introduced in the story is not just an urban myth used to scare young shop workers but an actual reality that is becoming more common place as many are too scared or unsure to question their rights and just sign where they are told. 
I know from my own experiences to date that it is all too common for management to be extremely hazy about what you are due and how far your rights will take you and I have generally garnered what I needed to know by asking my colleagues at various points or sometimes just finding out by accident. 

I would suggest if counter culture comes to a town near you that you go see it, maybe it will make you think about our vulnerable workforce or perhaps you'll just find yourself entertained for the evening but either way you'll consider an evening well spent