Conclusion

Verbatim theatre seems to be a very effective way of conveying a message and having an impact on an audience. Perhaps this is because the script is made up of the words of real individuals as opposed to a script writer who is only imagining what it is like to be in the situation of the characters in the play. This creates a more hard hitting message and the fact that the speech is more natural sounding with inflection and stutters makes for a very relatable piece of theatre. This style of theatre seems to be influencing other play writes and creatives in the industry. An example of this is the play 'Lungs' by Duncan Mcmillan. The play is written in the same way verbatim is, in the sense of it being very natural to listen to. The dialogue in this play is written with stutters and unfinished sentences, which makes it feel like you're almost listening into someone's conversation for 2 hours. There is something really refreshing about theatre which is written like this; it's easier to relate to and much more believable than something written in perfect sentences because one rarely talks completely fluently in day to day life. 

DV8's work seems to have toned down slightly from when they were first established in the 90s. This could be due to the fact that 'In Ya Face theatre' was more apparent at this time so theatre was in general more shocking than it is in the present day. DV8 are now starting to perform in the West End which may also be a reason for their performances to be less shocking, to suit a modern audience. In my opinion, the shocking trend will soon come back around as Sarah Kane's play Cleansed has recently proved successful at the National Theatre  in London, which is a play including very intense themes. 

As for verbatim theatre, I think that it is currently growing in popularity and will become much more established in the future. I have been seeing more and more verbatim performances in the industry, for example John at the national theatre which I had the pleasure of seeing a year back. 

My Own Attempt at Verbatim

I notice little things about Claire's speech patterns each time I listen to or read parts of her interview, which I found really interesting. I started picking up on the way she talks; the rhythm of what was spoken; her accent; the verbal ticks she uses, so much so, that each time I re-listened to a certain sentence, I found that I was becoming more and more familiar with it and was almost able to join in, copying what she was saying and how she was saying it. This got me thinking, that maybe it wasn't as difficult as i'd imagined, I wanted to give it a go myself. So I picked out a few memorable lines from the interview and began repeating it a few seconds after the recording of her speaking. I continued to do this until I found I was able to say it at the same time. It took a considerable amount of practice to get it right but it wasn't as difficult as I first thought it would be. However, I cannot imagine being able to learn 2 hours and 10 minutes worth of speech with that much precision, some of which is set to music, AND have the pressure of performing in front of an audience. I really admire the cast for being able to retain that level of performance.

JOHN- DV8: Review

Lloyd Newson's DV8 physical theatre play, JOHN, showing at the National Theatre from the 30th October 2014 to the 13th January 2015, follows the incredible life of one man, John. Based on interviews from the drug use helpline, Frank, Lloyd Newson, DV8's Artistic Director, combined movement and verbatim spoken work to create a moving theatrical experience.The play follows themes of home abuse, compulsion, addiction, loneliness, HIV and sexuality. With all of this very deep and personal subject matter, you'd expect a rather bleak, depressing experience. However Newson's innovative take on the material, allowed you the emotion, yet, very cleverly, offered moments of much needed comic relief.

I asked a friend, who I went to see the play with, what he thought of it:

"It was a really great example of narrative interpretation. The minimalistic set complimented the abstract movements to really bring to life the humorous, yet dark life of John. I liked the matter of fact style depiction of Johns struggle with the stigma surrounding homosexuality, whilst trying to fulfill his own sexual urges in the 80s. All of this expertly communicated through incredibly creative, yet technically and physically challenging dance pieces really made full impact of ever nuance of the interview."

Why was going to see this play useful for my research?

Press Reviews:

• "Engrossing, elegant. Astonishing physicality"- Time Out
• ''Lloyd Newson tells us John's story through interwined passages or verbatim speech and fluently choreographed movement"- Observer
• "Outstandingly effective and gripping dance theatre. A brilliant performance by Hannes Langolf"-Dagens Nyheter, Sweden
• "You can't leave this performance without being touched by John's life"- Deutschlandfunk, Germany

Recorded Delivery

ABOUT:
Recorded Delivery was founded in 2003 by Alecky Blythe. Having been inspired by Mark Wing Davy's teaching of the verbatim technique at his Drama Without Paper workshop, she quickly fell in love with the style and wrote and put on her first verbatim show, Come Out Eli, which she also performed in, herself. The play was about the Hackney siege and was presented the Time Out Live Awards Best Production on the Fringe in 2004. Having a successful experience with her first play, Alecky continued to experiment with and explore the verbatim technique, finding new ways of approaching material and performance.

PAST PRODUCTIONS:
COME OUT ELI
Come Out Eli was a play following the residents of Hackney during the longest siege in British history. The event brought a the community together, regardless of the difference in background, race, age or culture of the people, and they were united with the phrase 'Come out Eli'.

Two of the people who had characters made of them in the play expressed their views on the show:
"We thought Recorded Delivery's portrayal of us was brilliant. It was authentic and caught the immediacy and spontaneity perfectly. We thoroughly enjoyed watching is and were able to laugh at ourselves."

STRAWBERRY FIELDS
The stage drama Strawberry fields in 2005 raised political issues surrounding the use of migrant labour on industrial scale strawberry farms. The script was constructed by first hand testimonies from various people effected by the topic.

THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE
The Girlfriend Experience is a comedic, yet eye-opening play about prostitutes working in a brothel. The show reveals the opposite to the stereotyped lables most people

DO WE LOOK LIKE REFUGEES?
Do We Look Like Refugees?

LONDON ROAD
London Road

Resource Log

VERBATIM THEATRE:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verbatim_theatre
The playwright interviews people that are connected to the topic that the play is focused on and uses their testimony to construct the piece. In this way they seek to achieve a degree of authority akin to that represented by the news. Such plays may be focused on politics, disasters or even sporting events.

-Because I already knew quite a lot about verbatim theatre as a whole, and what it is, I didn't feel I needed to use much information from this website for a definition. However, it was useful for refreshing my mind and it confirmed my thought.  

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

-This video was very interesting and contributed hugely to my research on the verbatim style. It was very helpful because it gave me multiple practitioners' opinions on the topic and information on how they approach a verbatim show.

LONDON ROAD
http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/london-road?play=3

-This video was incredibly insightful into the way the writer, composer and director, devised the show. It gave me a chance to hear their actual reasons for making the musical, how it was done, and the struggles and obstacles that faced along the way, which was incredibly helpful.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3573598/
-I only used this website for information on when the feature film of London Road is coming out in cinemas.

http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/london-road?play=2

-It was interesting to hear some other people's reviews on the show, however, because it was a promotional video for the musical, it only showed good reviews to draw people in and persuade them to buy tickets. Theatre is a very opinionated industry, meaning there must have been some negative thoughts of the play, however, this video was very one sided, on the positive side.

http://oxfordstudent.com/2014/10/16/interview-alecky-blythe-im-interested-in-ordinary-people-in-extraordinary-situations/
-I didn't use any information from this interview, as such, however, it was a good interesting read helped me to understand Aleckey's method in more depth.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/adam-cork-the-man-behind-theatrelands-oddest-musical-7973254.html
Does he regret the outcry that initially greeted London Road? "The problem with the word 'musical' is that it's so loaded with implications of dancing, spectacle and fun. Some people, quite rightly, found the notion of making entertainment out of what had happened disgusting," he says. "We didn't want to be seen as doing it for sensational reasons or as doing the Chris Morris thing of indulging in extreme bad taste in order to mock it."

-It was useful to get a quote from Adam Cork about London Road, and was interesting to read about some of the concerns they had about the musical.

https://soundcloud.com/nationaltheatre/london-road-platform
-This audio recording of an interview with Aleckey Blythe, Adam Cork and Rufus Norris was extremely helpful and informative on the subject of verbatim theatre and London Road.

JOHN:
http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/john
-I only used this website to find out what dates the play was running from and until. This information was clear and easy to find.
-My only other research source for information on John, was going to see the actual show itself. This was obviously the best kind of research you can do on a play, and was very insightful into verbatim theatre.

RECORDED DELIVERY:
http://www.recordeddelivery.net/about.html
In 2003 Alecky Blythe founded Recorded Delivery and created her debut show Come Out Eli. She had been inspired to make it having learnt the verbatim technique from Mark Wing Davey in his innovative workshop Drama Without Paper. The show premiered at the Arcola winning the Time Out Award for Best Production on the Fringe and later transferred to the BAC for the Critics Choice Season.
After its success, she has continued to explore the verbatim method in various mediums. The term 'recorded delivery' has now become synonymous with the verbatim technique she employs.
-This information was very useful for my research into Recorded Delivery. It was a useful source of information for finding out the background information on the theatre company and how it started up.

http://www.recordeddelivery.net/come_out_eli.html

http://www.recordeddelivery.net/strawberry_fields.html

-I used this information in my research on past productions from Record Delivery. I found this information helpful for giving me an over view of this specific play, and explaining the synopsis. It was also helpful as it gave me a cast list so I didn't have to search elsewhere for this piece of information.

http://www.recordeddelivery.net/the_girlfriend_experience.html

-Again I used this information for my research into past productions from Recorded Delivery. This synopsis of The Girlfriend Experience was very helpful for my research as it gave me a clear understanding of what the play was about and who was involved.

Timeline

WEEK 1:
During week one, I plan to investigate into verbatim theatre as a whole, finding out about the practitioners who use the technique, and how they approach it. I want to find out why writers decide to create verbatim performances and how they come to the decision of what topic or event to focus on. It would be interesting to find out how the actors rehearse a verbatim performance, because I hope to go into acting after school, and would be very interested in being involved in a verbatim show. Therefore it is important for me to find out about the performers, to give me an insight into the rehearsal and performance technique. I also plan to refine my definition of of the style of theatre.
I will try to find this information using interviews on youtube and internet blogs. I will also, try to find some informative books in the library.

WEEK 2:
On week two, I will write a short review on a verbatim play I went to see recently, called John, by the theatre company DV8. I will need to do this on week 2 because it will still be fresh in my mind, where as, if I write it a few weeks down the line, my memory of it will be faded. I will also ask my friend, who came to see the show with me, what he thought of it; it is important for my research to have a second opinion, as it enables me to think of new ideas about the play that I perhaps hadn't thought of before. I will then try to find some other, short public reviews on the play, to improve my understanding of the play and further my own opinions. Obviously, most of this information will be from my own mind and recollection of the play. I will find out what my friends's view of the play were, by word of mouth, and the public reviews I will look for on the internet, using youtube videos and perhaps blogs.

WEEK 3:
During this week, I hope to research into a verbatim musical called London Road, which I went to see a few years ago and thoroughly enjoyed. The show was incredible and i'd love to find out more about the creators and how they came up with the idea. I would also like to find out what issues or problems they had to face in the creative process, as the devising of verbatim theatre is something that really interests me. I will look for this information on the internet, on the national theatre official website and hopefully i will find some interviews with the writers and directors.

WEEK 4:
In this week, I hope to find out more about how the music director for London Road composed the music for the show. I want to find this out because the music for this particular show was incredibly unique and I've never heard of anything like it before. I think that it must have been very difficult to translate the verbatim speech into music and it is something that I find deeply interesting. Again, I hope to find an interview with the music director for the musical to find out some reliable, first hand information.

WEEK 5:
On week 4, I plan to find other people's reviews on London Road, including public reviews and press reviews. It's important for me to get a number of different opinions to mine, to expand my horizans and open my mind to new ideas that other people thought of. Press reviews are interesting because usually, the people writing them are professional critics and know what they are talking about; they can comment on the style in much more detail than someone who doesn't know much about verbatim. This will greater my understanding of the show as a whole, and the verbatim technique. I will look for this information on the national theatre's official website and on online blogs and newspapers like the Evening Standard etc...

WEEK 6:
I would like to find out some information on Recorded Delivery, which was the theatre company who put on London Road. I would be interested in finding out about their previous productions and how they went down with their audiences, because it will give me an incite into how verbatim has previously been received and how it is received now.  This information will hopefully be sourced on Recorded Delivery's official website, and I might look for blog reviews on their past plays.

WEEK 7:
This is the week when I will arrange an over-the-phone interview with Claire Moore who was an original cast member of London Road's stage production. I'm excited to hear about what she has to say about her personal experience with being a performer in a verbatim show, because I hope to, some day, be involved in one too, so It will give me an incite into what the experience is like. I Want to ask her about the rehearsal and audition process because verbatim theatre is ver unconventional and new so I don't know much about these things.

WEEK 8:
Because I will be recording the interview with Clair Moore, I plan to attempt a bit of my own verbatim using the recordings of Claire's voice. This will be a very perceptive experience because it will give me a chance to have a go at the technique for myself and find out how difficult or easy it is.

Verbatim Theatre

DEFINITION: Verbatim theatre is a style of documentary theatre, composed of the exact words spoken by people interviewed about a certain topic or event. It is theatre created from interviews collected with real life people about an event or subject. Those real life people are then portrayed on the stage, by actors.

The playwright will usually talk to people who are effected by or connected to the subject matter of the play, creating audio recordings of the interviews as they go along. The writer will then use these testimonies to construct a piece of theatre about the chosen topic. The recordings used by the actors to create the most believable characterization possible; they copy, not only what the person has said, but also, how they have said it with coughs and stutters and all the 'imperfections' left in. This helps the portrayal of the character feel much stronger. During reheasals, the actors will listen to the recordings and repeat exactly what they hear, a few seconds after they hear it. They will repeat this technique until they have become completely familiar with the speech. In the performance, the actors will, generally, wear earpieces or headphones, and will be listening to the recordings as they perform, to ensure they keep as true to the original speech and do not fall into their own speech patterns.

If you write from your imagination, then you are writing from your own recolection of people's way of life. Whereas, with verbatim theatre, if you go out and collect evidence about peoples way of life, things are revealed to you which are completely extraordinary and unexpected.

Because verbatim as about the spoken word, it can become quite dull for an audience to just watch people talking for an hour or so, which is the reason why it is necessary for verbatim practitioners to be very creative with the way they are presenting the information and the characters on stage. The question 'how are we going to bring this to life in an interesting way' is often a question asked by writers and directors. This is either done by incorporating dance, or music or complex staging.