Lives on the Margins: Multiculturalism and Austerity in Zeldin’s The Inequalities

This paper examines Alexander Zeldin’s The Inequalities Trilogy to consider how the plays with multicultural characterizations circulate notions related to the UK Austerity Programme, and to suggest they can be regarded as having austerity narratives with multicultural characterization. The plays under consideration are Beyond Caring (2015), Love (2017) and Faith, Hope and Charity (2019). The first play of the trilogy, Beyond Caring is the story of invisible labourers, zero-hours contract workers. Love is about temporary housing and the people who are benefiting from Universal Credit Programme of the UK. Faith, Hope and Charity depicts the story of a community centre providing hot food and shelter to the people who are in extreme poverty. Alexander Zeldin’s trilogy analyses austerity policies and examines the impact of the UK Conservative governments on multiculturalism. By combining the insights gained from the analysis of these two important concepts, the study presents a fundamental critique of the impact of austerity policies on multiculturalism through the trilogy. This article explores how Zeldin’s trilogy critiques the UK’s multiculturalism policies, which aim for equality through peace and prosperity but instead lead to shared poverty under austerity measures.