Close Shave for Mayoral Candidates at Political Hair Salon

WHAT: Rates Cuts pop-up political hair salon
WHERE: Vogelmorn Bowling Club, 93 Mornington Road
WHEN: 6pm Thursday 15th September 2016

Journalist Nicky Hager gets a trim from Thomas LaHood (Barbarian Productions) and Jason Muir (Maverick Barber) in the lead up to the 2014 election

Hopefuls in the race for Wellington’s Mayoralty will submit their precious heads to a ‘meet the candidates’ evening with a difference - taking to the barber’s chair at the Rates Cuts pop-up political hair salon. Wellington hairdresser Jason Muir will work alongside a team of assistant ‘hairdressers’ supplied by local theatre company Barbarian Productions to create a radical and fun but informative experience. Following the mayoral session, Jason & his assistants will engage with candidates from the City Council Southern Ward, Regional Council and District Health Board.

Rates Cuts provides a safe, fun environment for the community to engage with local body politics. Throughout the presentation Muir suggests ‘Hairdressers have one thing in common with Mayoral candidates, everyone demands cuts!’ Rates Cuts will use the platform of a salon in its classic form, as a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host, with the aim to please or educate. Hairdresser/client interactions are relaxed and reflective, mixing gossip and guidance - however despite this casual intimacy hairdressers are currently being recognised the world over as a frontline of social work.

Rates Cuts emerges conceptually from Political Cuts, Barbarian Productions and Muir’s successful collaboration held in a vacant retail space in the lead-up to the 2014 general election. It looks to engage the participation of a wider community including the encouragement of younger and lesser-heard voices. Rates Cuts is a collaboration between Barbarian Productions, Maverick Barber and Emporium and the Vogelmorn Community Group.

ENDS

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