Tribunal Plays and Verbatim Theatre
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24193/subbdrama.2017.1.04Keywords:
documentary theatre, verbatim, tribunal plays, ethic, public inquiry, Peter Cheeseman, Tricycle Theatre, David Hare, Max Stafford-Clark.Abstract
The paper’s aim is to offer an overview on a diverse and dynamic phenomenon, as documentary theatre in Britain, with accents on two of the most visible directions, that it follows on the last decades: verbatim and tribunal theatre. Since the mid ‘90s, a period dominated by apathy and detachment, these formulas have been proving their efficiency, on the one hand, by investigating and researching some current, urgent, national and international topics, and on the other hand by calling new strategies for addressing and engaging the audience. Meanwhile these practices based on ”the truth” that comes from documents and interviews generate particular questions about the relationship between ethic and esthetic, between objective and subjective, between real and fictional. Documentary theatre, and particularly verbatim theatre deals with a dilemma: how to create a theatrical viable experience, without distorting the documentary source?References
Anderson, Davey. Blackout. London: Samuel French, 2009.
Angel-Perez, Elisabeth. “Language Games and Literary Constraints”, in Angelaki Vicky (ed.), Contemporary British Theatre – Breaking New Ground. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.
Billington, Michael. “Bloody Sunday”, https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2005/ apr/12/theatre.
Billington, Michael. “The best shows of 2011”, https://www.theguardian.com/culture/ 2011/dec/04/best-theatre-2011-michael-billington.
Billington, Michael. “V is for verbatim theatre”, at https://www.theguardian.com/ stage/2012/may/08/michael-billington-verbatim-theatre.
Cantrell, Tom. Acting in Documentary Theatre. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.
Cavendish, Dominic. “Theatre: And nothing but the truth”, at http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-and-nothing-but-the-truth-1045299.html.
Clapp, Susannah. “Here is racism in all of its subtle shades”, https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/jan/17/race.world.
Favorini, Attilio. Memory in Play: From Aeschylus to Sam Shepard. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.
Giannachi, Gabriella (ed.), and Mary Luckhurst (ed.). On directing: Interviews with Directors. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2014.
Hare, David. Stuff Happens. London: Faber and Faber, 2013.
Haydon, Andrew. “Theatre in the 2000s.” In Rebellato Dan (ed.), Modern British Playwriting: 2000-2009. London, Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2013.
Holdsworth, Nadine (ed.), and Mary Luckhurst (ed.). A Concise Companion to Contemporary British and Irish Drama. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2008.
Hologa, Marie. Cases of Intervention. The Great Variety of British Cultural Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013.
Mangan, Michael. The Drama, Theatre and Performance Companion. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.
Norton-Taylor, Richard. The Colour of Justice: Based on the Transcripts of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry. London: Oberon Books, 2012, ebook.
Norton-Taylor, Richard. ”Verbatim plays pack more punch than the papers”, at https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2014/oct/22/richard-norton-taylor-verbatim-tribunal-plays-stephen-lawrence.
Paget, Derek. “Verbatim Theatre: Oral History and Documentary Techniques”, New Theatre Quarterly III, (1987/12): 317 - 336.
Paget, Derek. True Stories? Documentary Drama on Radio, Screen and Stage. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1990.
Ravenhill Mark, and Bette Bourne. A Life in Three Acts. London: Methuen, 2009.
Sierz, Aleks. Rewriting the Nation. British Theatre Today. London: Methuen, 2011.
Spencer, Charles. ”Why Britain isn’t working”, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/ 3606779/Why-Britain-isnt-working.html
Widdecombe, Ann, ”For or against?”, https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2004/ sep/03/theatre.iraq
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2017 Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai Dramatica
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
