Overview

An international group of observers arrives in a West African country to oversee and rubber stamp its first democratic election. New voters queue in their thousands, but a senior member of the observation team finds herself both horrified by the president's suppressive tactics and, for once, in a position to do something about it. Yet as violence on the streets escalates and the country enters freefall, an increasingly angry young translator forces this well-meaning outsider to confront the impact of her intervention. "The Observer" by Matt Charman was premiered at the National Theatre, London, in May 2009.