FROM THE REHEARSAL ROOM

The poetry of the way real people speak...

I went to rehearsal today.

I flew to Auckland to watch the rehearsals for VERBATIM, a new production of the play that William Brandt and I put together 30 years ago.

30 years is a long time. But watching once again this solo show about violent crime, I realised not much has changed in the intervening years. Young people are still at risk of committing violent crimes due to drugs and alcohol, just as our character Aaron Daly did in 1993 when he murdered our character Gail.

The play is composed of monologues from 9 characters addressed directly to the audience. This where the magic of the play lives — the audience feels the direct hit of an emotional connection with each character as they speak.

Back in 1993, I toured this solo show to all the prisons in Aotearoa/New Zealand plus many theatres and high schools. I performed it in all the prisons in New South Wales in Australia and I toured it to the Edinburgh, Denver and Hong Kong Festivals, also performing it in London at Brixton Prison …