Verbatim Theatre

• In verbatim theatre, the script is compiled from spoken testimony collated from interviews. These interviews are usually conducted by the playwright, director, and/or the actors or makers of the performance, and then edited into a script.
• Verbatim theatre is not a recent invention. There are examples of political theatre in the 1930s and community theatre in the 1960s that used interview testimony as the basis for performance (for example, the legendary director, Peter Cheeseman, created a series of verbatim shows with a local focus at the Victoria Theatre in Stoke in the 1960s and 70s).
• However, there has been an extraordinary resurgence and proliferation of verbatim theatre in the twenty-first century.
• This resurgence is not specific to the UK. Notable verbatim theatre practitioners around the world include Anna Deavere Smith in the US and Roslyn Oades in Australia (there are, of course, many others).
• The term ‘verbatim theatre’ does not describe a single process – there are many approaches to creating theatre from interview material.
• In the UK, verbatim theatre is most readily associated with Alecky Blythe and her method of ‘recorded delivery’: Blythe has created an impressively wide range of verbatim performances since the early 2000s.
• Advances in audio recording technology and the availability of this technology – from cassette recorders in the 1970s, and Dictaphones in the 1990s, to smartphones in the 2000s – have ensured that the resources needed to make verbatim theatre are widely accessible.  

• Verbatim theatre productions often give visibility to news stories, topical issues, and communities neglected in the media. At a time when much news reporting, especially on television and online, is fragmented and bite-sized, verbatim theatre enables audiences to digest a story, spend a couple of hours with it, and engage with its complexity.
• Some verbatim plays are performed in front of the contributors who gave their testimony in the first place. When this happens, the theatre event becomes a kind of feedback loop where the contributors of testimony have the uncanny experience of seeing actors portray them, and say their words, on stage.
• Verbatim theatre is part of a broader turn to the real in twenty-first-century popular culture. Think of the ongoing phenomenon of Reality TV. Think of the frisson we feel at the start of a film when we read the caption ‘based on a true story’. Think of the rise of social media and self-broadcasting (YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter): we are constantly documenting our lives via these platforms, creating what might be called ongoing ‘dramatisations of self’. It’s interesting to think of verbatim theatre in relation to this cultural context. What do they have in common?
• Verbatim theatre also draws attention to the intricacies of ‘everyday’ speech: the emotional underpinnings of what is said, the ‘umms’ and ‘ahhs’, the hesitations, the Freudian slips, the pauses and infelicities that shape our communications, and miscommunications, with each other. Verbatim theatre does not have to focus on serious topical issues – in its treatment of ‘ordinary’ speech, a verbatim performance can be funny, playful, surreal, magical!
• Verbatim theatre is a (relatively inexpensive) way of challenging the insularity of the theatre industry. Verbatim theatre-making often involves collaboration with external participants and can break down the barriers between the rehearsal room and the world.  

• What is the appeal of verbatim theatre for contemporary audiences?
• What do you think are the challenges of creating a script from interview testimony?
• If you were conducting an interview as part of the research process for a verbatim performance, how would you prepare – what are the steps you would take?
• Verbatim theatre is usually based on interview testimony: does the reliance on interview material give audiences greater access to reality than other (fictional) forms of theatre? Or should we be uneasy about such claims?
• Verbatim theatre often places neglected or marginalised issues and communities onstage. Do you think verbatim theatre contributes to our democracy (by providing a platform for diverse bodies and voices), or is it voyeuristic (allowing comfortable audiences to peer into the lives of the less privileged)?

• Verbatim theatre continues to be popular with theatre-makers, audiences, and students in the UK and internationally.
• The emphasis today is on experiment and hybridity: for example, verbatim musicals, verbatim dance, verbatim soundscapes, and verbatim installations.
• The appeal of verbatim theatre is that you can choose a subject that interests you and your collaborators, or that you’re passionate about, and then make a show responsive to it.
• There is no set form: you can experiment with styles and approaches, and think about using music, physicality, song, dance, and different kinds of audio, visual and digital technology.
• But verbatim theatre also presents challenges: there are ethical issues involved in curating and editing interview testimony on stage.

Check out these short online films about verbatim theatre created by the National Theatre (South Bank):

An introduction to verbatim theatre (8 mins)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ui3k1wT2yeM

This video features contributions from several verbatim theatre-makers in the UK, including Alecky Blythe and the playwright David Hare. A useful introduction to definitions and approaches.

A guide to creating verbatim theatre (7 mins)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-a0qNEhCly4

If you’re interested in making a piece of verbatim theatre, this video offers some useful tips and guidance.

How we made it – creating verbatim theatre: Our Generation with Alecky Blythe and Daniel Evans (3 mins)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHbNT-xQAEc

A brief insight into the making of Our Generation, the verbatim play – created by Alecky Blythe and directed by Daniel Evans – which was staged at the National Theatre (South Bank) in 2022.

The ethics of verbatim theatre (7 mins)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39JSv-n_W5U

Verbatim practitioners offer some important reflections on the ethics of making verbatim theatre and of working with interview testimony.

Billington, Michael, ‘V is for Verbatim Theatre’, Guardian, 8 May 2012 (available at http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2012/may/08/michael-billington-verbatim- theatre).

This article, written by the long-serving theatre reviewer of The Guardian newspaper, gives an overview of verbatim theatre in the UK in the early twenty-first century. Billington also considers the appeal of verbatim theatre for modern audiences.

Cantrell, Tom, Acting in Documentary Theatre, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.

In this insightful book, Cantrell explores the challenges and possibilities of acting in theatre productions based on real-life events.

Forsyth, Alison, and Chris Megson (ed.), Get Real: Documentary Theatre Past and Present, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011 (2009).

This is the first book-length study of the history and contemporary resurgence of documentary theatre around the world. It offers a global perspective and new ways of thinking about theatre based on real-life events.

Hammond, Will, and Dan Steward (ed.), Verbatim, Verbatim: Techniques in Contemporary Documentary Theatre, London: Oberon Books, 2008.

An accessible collection of interviews with verbatim practitioners on their approaches to theatre-making.

Martin, Carol, Dramaturgy of the Real on the World Stage, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.

A selection of performance texts and academic essays that explore the theory and practice of ‘staging the real’. An essential scholarly resource.

Summerskill, Clare, Creating Verbatim Theatre from Oral Histories, London: Routledge, 2020.

Clare Summerskill is a verbatim practitioner, playwright, and scholar – this book offers an excellent first-hand account of verbatim theatre practice and its links with oral history (Summerskill completed her PhD on this topic at Royal Holloway).