London Road and why I ♥ Verbatim.

Having topped off my first draft of the play on Wednesday, I decided to award myself a rest day. Despite promising Rachel and Wendy (the assistant director) the first look, on Wednesday evening I went to my parents flat in North London and read what I had written so far. My dad had reacted to the idea of listening to a reading with fidgety wariness, but said he was gripped within the first two pages, so I was delighted by their reaction. Again I am thank for their extremely useful feedback.

The next morning I walked across Hampsted Heath, and wended my way home to Brixton. In my flat I found my desire to re-approach the script to start tinkering and fine tuning somewhat lacking, so headed back in to central London. I wondered round, got my haircut, went to the bar I work in to take in it's new Boudoir-esque interior, but felt a little at a loose end. Eventually I found myself crossing the Thames and heading towards the South bank, the National Theatre looming into view. Someone had recommended to me London Road recently, a new verbatim musical by Alecky Blyth, who is apparently quite the leader of the pack in terms of verbatim innovation, so on a sudden whim I decided to check it out and managed to bag a £5 standing ticket.

I haven't been particularly lucky in my theatre-going of late. The feeling of being bored in a theatre is one of the worst, and so far this year I have been bored by shallow stylised surrealism, empty verbosity, and heavy handed direction in a number of overlong production. Therefore the 2hr and 10 minute running time made me a little nervous, however when I left the theatre at quarter to ten truly excited by the subtly and texture Blythes play and indeed by the verbatim technique.

The play is based not so much on interviews, but more recordings of Blythe's time spent with the residents of London Road in Ipswich during the period when serial killer Steve Wright was on his spree and the period following. Therefore we get to attend meetings by the neighborhood watch group and an "in bloom" prize giving, as well hearing traditional interviews done in a verity of locations from people houses, to cafes and the local shopping precinct. What make the show particularly unique is that the material Blythe collated has all been set to an "Umbrellas of Cherbourg" style musical score, with every "um," "y'know" and "yeah, yeah, yeah" intact.

The great thing was that everything that at first appeared a problem to me, eventually became a strength. The fringy set, which at first seemed a little cheep and dingy, actually gave the Cottesloe theatre the warm feeling of a community production; this might be an amateur show that the interviewees are participating in. The lack of focus on Wright himself, and only one brief scene that focused on surviving local prostitutes, at first seemed to miss the dramatic heart of the matter but in the end the focus on the unheard voices of the local community gave them both their voice and show's unique character. Personally I found the music a little too populist for my taste, but it perfectly suited the subject matter and characters. "Are we meant to feel that we're celebrating the area being cleared of prostitutes?" Asked a friend I met after the show, and again this may seem a little ideologically suspect, but I actually admired the way Blythe took an entirely ambivalent stance on the matter. "This was an event that happened and this is the effect on the people who live locally," the show appeared to say,  and left us to decide what we made of the curiously positive effect it had on galvanising the community.

There was perhaps a slightly uncomfortable feeling of laughing at the people who had given up their time to be interviewed. People's accents, relationships and bumbling speech could all seem a little caricatured for all the apparent accuracy of their presentation, yet on the whole we were invited to warm to them, and perhaps some of the laughter was through recognising parts of ourselves on stage.

Ultimately I left feeling both entertained and full of thought, which is a rare combination, and inspired by the manner in which this verbatim production had done exactly what interests me in the genre. It places real human experience in the framework of an art/theatre and asks us to question it meaning for us a human beings.

I walk the three miles home in the balmy night air, and googled "Alecky Blythe" as soon as I got in, finding this fascinating  and helpful interview; Alecky Blythe on her unique verbatim plays . I was particularly jealous to hear of her 14 month interview period and 8 months writing and editing, as I have dealt with my own 6 month period in which to do everything! Regardless, as I set out to work  on my own script today I feel both confident in what I have drawn together and the practice of verbatim work producing stunning theatre.