ESA has been going on long enough. Atos has been torturing sick and disabled people for long enough. The government has been pretending it's enabling people for long enough. So we were delighted to see our friend Sue Marsh lay down the gauntlet and say enough IS enough. We need to end ESA once and for all and the ESA Endgame campaign might just do it.
We always wrote our plays as a way to educate people about Atos, the DWP and ESA. And we've had some success. 2,500 people have read the three versions of play on-line. The Monologues have been performed at Greenbelt, a Leeds Uncut demo and podcasted by My Life, My Choice . Despite having Newham Council cancel their 1st performance, Act Up are still planning on putting on the Atos Stories
But now we want to try something new. Something you can ALL get involved in. We have three versions of the play, which you can download here: Atos Stories, The Atos Monologues and AtosStreet Theatre.* We want to organise a mass action against Atos.
On Tuesday 9thApril. We'd like to invite you to put one of these versions on in your community. You don't have to be an actor or an actress to take part, just someone who wants to be heard in your own words or the words of others in a similar situation. But if you do perform and you care about these issues, please do perform with us!
You don't have do the whole thing, you can do a scene from the play, sing one of the songs, read part of the Monologues. You can add your own stories or link with the stories published by Sue on her blog under the #esaendgame hashtag here and here. The idea is that everybody Acts Against Atos on the same day across the country. You can do this anywhere, at a library, community centre, shopping mall, theatre, your local Atos office. Wherever the most people will be able to hear the message.
So if you are an actor, or if you are not, if you are disabled or sick or not., but you can read a part, sing a song, act a scene and you want to get involved. Let us know.
If you want to take part, email us at atosstories@gmail.com, or leave a comment below by 31st March 2013. Tell us who is taking part, where and when and we'll put it on our blog. Please try and get a record of the event, and we'll post a link.
By Acting Together, we CAN end ESA now!
* Please contact us if you need large print versions
UPDATE
We've been informed that Scribd has started charging for downloads. Wow Petition has kindly offered to host our plays, so you can download them here!
UPDATE
We've been informed that Scribd has started charging for downloads. Wow Petition has kindly offered to host our plays, so you can download them here!
