Fearless

Why write a play?  To tell a story, to make a point, to educate, to entertain?  I go to the theatre a lot and sometimes I do wonder why the play I’ve just seen has been put on.  Did I learn anything?  Did I laugh?  I don’t always expect a riotous night out but I want to be engaged.

Verbatim theatre has been around for a while.  For the uninitiated, “Verbatim theatre is a form of documentary theatre in which plays are constructed from the precise words spoken by people interviewed about a particular event or topic.” (Wikipedia)  For me, it’s like watching a film which opens with “based on true life events” – I am immediately interested.

Deep Cut & The Riots at the Tricycle, London Road at the National, John by DV8 are just a few recent productions.  I saw JOHN and found it to be a fascinating insight into one man’s life – someone I would probably never meet, who had lived a life I knew very little about.  And hearing his tale, in his words and delivery (performed superbly by Hans Langolf) made it all the more real.  Maybe this confronting reality was what rattled Quentin Lett’s cage at the Daily Mail, sometimes opening your eyes to what is happening around you can be threatening to the status quo.  It’s hard to un-see or un-hear things and face the fact that sometimes, the world isn’t a very nice place.

This weekend I was privileged enough to see a performance of Nirbhaya at the Southbank Centre which took verbatim theatre to a whole new level.  This show sprung from the appalling rape and murder of Jyoti Singh Pandey in Delhi in December 2012.  As well as portraying the horrific crime suffered by Jyoti Singh Pandey and her friend Awindra Pratap Pandey, the actors in the show each tell a story about abuse – physical, mental and sexual – which happened to them personally.  What I hadn’t realised initially, was that each narrative, woven around the telling of the Jyoti’s tale, was the actors own story.  These weren’t just actors, they were brave, fearless women who finally felt that they had a voice.  That they could tell their truth and someone would listen.

The incident in Delhi sparked riots in India and demands for legal reform and a change in attitude towards women.  People were talking, the world was watching and the law was transforming.  After the performance of Nirbhaya the cast took part in a Q&A and described how, when performed in India, hundreds of women came forward and took the microphone and spoke for the first time of personal attacks they had suffered.  The performance had given them the courage to share.

An incident can lead to revolution.  But for real evolution and progress, the message needs to be passed on and theatre is a hugely powerful conduit to do this.  In times of a new government and whispers about further cuts to arts funding, I worry that this powerful affecting voice could be lost and therefore the words of the voiceless.

To finish, I will hark back to A-level Drama and this quote:

“Our theatre must stimulate a desire for understanding, a delight in changing reality. Our audience must experience not only the ways to free Prometheus, but be schooled in the very desire to free him. Theatre must teach all the pleasures and joys of discovery, all the feelings of triumph associated with liberation.” 

Bertolt Brecht Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956), "Essays on the Art of Theater," (1954).

Theatre can effect change.  Let it.

Twitter: @mirandacolmans
Website: www.mirandacolmans.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MirandaColmans