SLAP Artist Harri Marshall in Residence at York Theatre Royal
On the 20th June, I was luck enough to have a week residency at the Theatre Royal to work on ‘Technical Difficulties’ a verbatim play which I created in 2017. The play is a tapestry of voices across the UK with interviews dating from 2017 to 2020. It explores life, love and all the technical difficulties in how we build, maintain and experience relationships with the use of technology. This technology includes everything from letters, music to apps. I had the privilege of working with two fabulous local performers: Alicia Arkless and Dan Boyle.
The first two days of the residency explored the text, in which we condensed the script down into a performer friendly format. The original work contained nearly 40 voices from across the UK, in the original script this was presented as 6 performers who would multi-role. Our challenge was to reduce it even further to having it just as 2 performers who would multi-role.
I wanted to challenge the traditional nature of verbatim theatre (or documentary theatre as it is known as). I was keen to move away from the presentation format of presenting the work, which to some can be very dry to experience, to showcasing the work in an exciting light through presenting the text through mix art forms such as movement, sound and projection as well as incorporate integrated access, such as BSL. In doing so, this would heighten an audience’s engagement whilst presenting the work through a diverse stream of communication, whilst staying true to the original voices in the script.
My next challenge on the 3rd day was to root the work into coherent characters and worlds within the play. We decided to frame this similarly inspired by Alan Bennett’s ‘Talking Heads’, by rooting the script in a domestic setting: a house. Where in this house we would frame scenes of the play as sketches, that would interlink thematically. This again challenges the traditional format of verbatim, in which it so often stays true to where the interviews would take place. The focus of ‘staying true’ was still of absolute importance to my journey of exploring format, as I didn’t want any misconceptions about the core of those interviews in the script. However, I wanted to play creatively with again how to present this for maximum engagement to inspire and encourage audiences to reflect how the discussions could relate to them.
On the 4th day, I was tweaking our blocking and final touches for our sharing, which occurred on day 5, the last day of the residency. This included creating our technical requirements for the sharing, which included music, video, and lighting.
On day 5, the script was now 55 minutes long – which met my objective to convert the script into a full-length studio show. Between myself, Alicia and Dan we selected our favourite scenes and showcased them to Juliet Forster, John R Wilkinson (both directors at the York Theatre Royal) and Lydia Cottrell (from SLAP). The reflections were invaluable. I was encouraged to progress further to explore more about the use of projection, which could be particularly effective to enhance the framing devices of the piece as well as present character.
In conclusion, the week was a fantastic opportunity to develop the script into a place where with a bit more rehearsal could be performance ready to showcase to a paying audience.