Memory of the Voiceless. Verbatim, Cvasi-verbatim, Mockumentary

Abstract

Abstract This paper examines a series of practices circumscribed to verbatim theatre, which uses interviews or other documentary materials, in order to engage the audience in relation to urgent, controversial topics of general or local interest. Although it has just recently entered theatrical usage, verbatim has proved to be a flexible method, open to expressions from the most diverse. We will follow the approaches of some directors or playwrights, as Anna Deveare Smith, Moisés Kaufman, David Hare, Max Stafford-Clark, Richard Norton-Taylor or Alecky Blythe, who are concerned with reflecting the undistorted reality, but at the same time with providing an intense theatrical experience. In this respect, we analyze how the tensions between objective and subjective, between real and fictional, between content and form are negotiated, as well as the impact that these choices have on the artistic product, respectively to what extent the authenticity of the sources remains unaltered when it comes on stage.