Verbatim theatre – where every word spoken onstage is taken from the testimony of real people – can be a powerful extension of journalism. Verbatim theatre allows people to speak for themselves to a live audience, and as a result can have a stronger impact than conventional media. Over the last few years, with the director, Nicolas Kent, I have written – edited is a better description – nine verbatim plays, including The Colour of Justice, taken from evidence to the Macpherson inquiry into the racist murder of the teenager Stephen Lawrence in south London, and Grenfell: Value Engineering, taken from the hearings in phase two of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry.
They have attracted audiences wanting an explanation – for the atrocities, scandals, and disasters they have heard about in brief television or radio bulletins, or read of in newspaper articles. Our plays are taken from evidence to public inquiries; the inquiries are by nature inquisitorial rather than adversarial and thus more successful in getting at the truth.
