This blog post explores how I moved from my initial intensions to staging the play.
I like simplicity and I hate watching a show which is over-cluttered with fussiness. Having spent Summer 2014 with The Lincoln Company at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, my perspective of what theatre was changed dramatically. Having watched copious average productions where the themes explored and were exaggerated beyond repair and the acting is far overdone, I ended up having my head held in my hands wondering if it was me; was I just not getting it? After searching the programme, I found two productions which really interested me, MenSWEAR Colletion: Spunk (2015) by Stuart Crowther and Travesti (2015) by Unbound Theatre. Both performances explored the social and cultural issues surrounding masculinity and femininity. In MenSWEAR Colletion: Spunk (2015), the performance style was more naturalistic and traditional than in Travesti (2015), which adopted a more contemporary acting style by portraying female stories through the male voice. This juxtaposition was something which really interested me as a writer and I initially adopted the style when the script was first performed in December 2014. As a writer, I have always been passionate about writing truthfully from a human perspective. Through my writing I have never wanted to embark on creating a complex storyline with a hero and a villan- I simply wanted to create a play which presented a broad outlook on a specific issue.
My work is not meant to hide the scars of war, but to show the full frame of unseen stories. (Mohammed, 2014)
I began by writing a monologue which was staggered and fast-pased in form and explored a range of ideas around heartbreak, something I was personally experiencing at the time. In doing so, I never wrote with a particular character in mind, more an all encompassing voice which acted as a universal network between different voices and stories. However, after many re-reading’s and edit’s, this form still felt unnatural, despite trying an aim for it to be honest and sincere. After many failed attempts at starting the play, I had to take a step back from the creative process and question how theatre told stories, and the forms it manifested in. Therefore, I decided to write the show in Verbatim style, a form likened by companies such as Out of Joint, The Paper Birds and FYSA Theatre. Verbatim theatre is written in a form that translates the direct words of interviewee’s into a script which is then performed by actors. In essence, the style is perhaps the most honest and direct form of theatre in that it takes the words of human being’s which are then performed on the stage. I chose this form because it felt the most honest and natural way I could portray a universal human voice on the stage.
My next task was to think about what message I was trying to translate through my writing. Therefore, after an intense research period, I found many stories from women who had been made vulnerable because of their gender, an issue that had always been important to me. I began by editing a total of eleven international stories, which soon turned into five; three of which I transported into the current script. Using these stories as a framework, I then interviewed friends, family and colleagues on their experiences of being women. They expressed a vast range of issues they suffered as women on a daily basis, some were serious, such as facing derogatory comments regarding their sexuality and the pain they experienced in child birth. Other’s focused more on the monotonous, everyday struggles women face, whether it be the need to hold their breasts while running down the stairs, or seeing their child playing in the park with their friend.
We hid around the corner so that you wouldn’t see us.
We wore bras.
We burned them.
We still do.
We lost our virginity under the stars listening to N-Sync.
We are hormonal.
We did tell you that we are always right.
We are the weaker sex.
We bought shoes.
We bought more shoes.
We fell in love with the wrong person.
We really wanted it to work.
We know you said it didn’t matter, but please believe us when it say that it did.
We saw you playing with your friends in the playground.
We laughed about the same thing hundreds of times.
We shared a carton of Ribena while listening to Aerosmith.
We have not had sex in six months.
We have not had sex in three years.
We have not had sex.
We started our period while opening Christmas presents when we were ten years old.
We wanted to get married, have children and settle down.
We saw you bump your knee.
We wanted you to know that we were really proud of you.
We saw you roll your eyes.
We would like you to know that even though we are wrong, we are still right.
We are sorry, but we were too tired to make love to you last night.
We know you know where the right hole is, and we do not believe you when you tell us it was an accident.
We are terrible drivers.
We wedged toilet roll in our pants because we ran out of sanitary towels.
We fought for our right to vote. (Thomas, 2015).
Although these lines broke from the original verbatim style of the show, they introduced a confessional nature to the show – something I felt was really important. I was inspired to write in this style after watching Tim Etchells discussing Speak Bitterness (1994) which unravels a “catalogue of confessions” onto its audience (Etchells, 2014).
Having struggled immensely to link the verbatim-spoken scenes together, as a writer these lines acted as a thread to piece the different elements of the show together. In essence, by combining these elements I found myself fusing the edges of all different elements of the show to sooth the transitions in place and time. They were formed from as a result of my own memories, articles I had read, social and cultural attitudes I had experienced, and attitudes embedded in societies. They were a universal voice of the perceptions and realities of womanhood. My intention through the way they are placed, is that they will create alternating levels of pace within themselves.
I wrote in total 158 “we…” lines for the show in its current state and they are my favourite aspect of the script, because I believe they present an honest reflection of womanhood. Some are true, others are stereotypes and misunderstood perceptions, but all are a single fragment in our global society. These lines were also those with I found most natural to write. On one occasion, I found myself stood in the queue in Starbuck’s, waiting for the Latte I had ordered, writing lines into my phone. Other times I was stood in the post office, awaiting a parcel. It goes without saying that this script has become a huge part of my life and the idea of improving it is constantly on my mind. Although we are just a few weeks away from False Title’s first production, I feel in no way ready to let go of the show just yet… I guess we will just see that the future holds!
Citations
Etchells, T. (2014) Forced Entertainment on Speak Bitterness. [online video] Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjCjHvuCb_8&feature=youtu.be [Accessed 30 April 2015].
Forced Entertainment, (1994). Speak Bitterness.
Mohammed, E. (2014) The Courage to tell a Hidden Story. [online video] Available from: https://www.ted.com/talks/eman_mohammed_the_courage_to_tell_a_hidden_story/transcript?language=en [Accessed November 6 2014].
Thomas, S. (2015) WOMENSwear.