Free Talking To Terrorist And Parramatta Girls Essay Example

The verbatim theater is considered as a type of documentary that is grounded on the spoken words from the people who record their testimonies on interviews concerning the topic or event not common in the mainstream society. The two examples of the verbatim plays are Robin Soans' ‘Talking to Terrorist' and Alan Valentine's ‘Parramatta Girls.' Both plays are similar because they portray social and political message but different in terms of approach and ideas. On one hand, Valentine shed light on the social perspective to portray the issues that are hidden from the mainstream society and bring the stories of women in the limelight. On the other hand, Soans emphasizes more on the political perspective and focus on the two sides of the terrorists. With this light, the two plays take dissimilar approaches to constructing the stories.
On the contrary, Soans took a different process to construct ‘Talking to Terrorist' play as he focused on keeping the play word-to-word and truthful as possible. According to Soans, "In the past, there has been a tendency to patronize its sources with a layer of caricature, of knowingness in the portrayal of the speaker, undercutting the words with an imposed commentary on the person who said them, often for the sake of cheap laugh or an easily scored point." The respondents of the interview included the former members of terrorist groups such as Ugandan NRA, IRA, Kurdish PKK, the Palestinian AAB, and UVF. In addition, the interviewees included the military personnel, politicians, and terrorism victims. The plays were based in realism and Soans tries as much as possible to keep his stories true and factual. However, similar to Valentine, Soans also protected the identities of the participants in the process of forming his play.
Although the formation of Verbatim play seems easy, the ability to develop a theatrical and appealing performance while depicting the true stories from expressed by the respondents challenges the Verbatim experts. Valentine utilizes the stage directions to develop the scenes and ensure that her audience can have a clear picture of what happened and are engaged in the play. For instance, Valentine utilizes her expertise on stage direction to portray the experience of the women on the scene where the doctor examines Marlene. She also ensures that the scene is properly directed, and the directors provide a credible content of the play. As part of the stage direction, she asserts, "She walks forward and, still wearing her dress, removes her underpants. She lays down on the floor and parts her legs. Then she turns her head to the side and cries as her leg move further apart. Gayle comes on, dressed as a doctor, in a white sheet. All other girls surround her and chime in as the Doctor ‘examines' Marlene." Valentine uses the descriptive direction to provide a clear image of the events and portray how the society would avoid thinking and believing in such scenario. In this case, Valentine has visualized the situation to keep the audience engaged. The first time I saw the performance, I noticed had a hard time to make the society believe in their society and disconnect themselves from the memories concerning the torture they experienced. Consequently, this makes the play and the performance more provoking.
In ‘Talking to Terrorist,' Soans utilizes a different approach in which he focuses on utilizing simple address on the dialogue to engage the audience instead of utilizing stage direction. For example, Soans reveals, "For the first hundred days of interrogation we were completely naked. The women were raped, most of the men had batons shoved up their ars**, or forced to sit on beer bottles ‘til they disappeared" (Soans 44). Although Soans does not utilize the stage direction, he manages to construct pure verbatim scenes and highlight the political nature of the matter. He creates an opportunity for the directors to utilize the theatrical figures if they deem it fit.
Another challenge of verbatim theater is that it depicts the situation or the story word for word and hence challenging to attract the audience attention. In ‘Parramatta Girls' the monologue of Lynette is brief, but keep the audience more engaged due to the application of theatrical elements like blocking and space. As a way of portraying space and blocking and stage directions, Valentine states "Lynette is still sitting outside. She steps forward, rubbing a spot her clavicle" (Valentine 30). Valentine proceeds, "Even though I've been told that I am the bastard scum on the earth, I love and accept myself completely" (Valentine 30). As a result, this visualizes the situation instead of just stating what was happening. The story shed light to the women abuse and assault and allow the audience to be sympathetic to them and understand them.
The ‘Talking to Terrorist' has a verbose vignette but contributes to the meaning towards the end. Soans preferred to avoid the theatrical elements such as blocking and space because he focused on stating the experience of the interviewees. This is illustrated at the start of the NRA monolog. "Now time I was eight years old my step mother said ‘I'm going out, you had better cook the dinner.' I thought how the beef stew looked when she made it. I put nearly half a kilo of cream into the sauce and some curry; it had the right color it looked like it should" (Soans 36). In the beginning, the monolog seems meaningless until the story continues. "‘My stepmother moves the chairs so he could beat me more easily my brothers and sisters are screaming ‘stop, stop father, you're killing herstop, stop' ‘When my father finished, I was full of blood." Without the use of the theatrical elements, the audience understands the background and the other side of the terrorists. The story illustrates how the politicians and government ignore the influence of the terrible background of terrorists on the prevalence of terrorism.
Although creating an entertaining and truthful verbatim is challenges, Valentine was able to overcome this situation by using sophisticated contrast. For instance, using the ghost on Maree and Gayle conversation on the shower scene allow the audiences to remember the demise of one of the girls in the play. Mentioning the ghost in the scene captures the attention of the audience, and keep the story more entertaining. On the other hand, Soans utilizes the contrast of emotions among the characters. For instance, the Envoy admits that they were scared to consult the terrorists. The scene suggests. "Look, if I come with you, you'll keep me." He said, "We will not keep you." This shows the perception of the society towards terrorists.
Another difference between the two plays is the use of the props, in which Valentine uses the props while Soans fails to utilize them. For instance, Valentine portrays, " She gets a chair and jams the foot shut. Then she takes a small rope out of her pocket and looks at It." and "She takes a sharp object and cuts herself." These props engage the audiences to understand the victims and develop emotions on how the society fails to believe their stories. However, Soans play lacks direction but illustrate the harshness of the situation without using the props. For instance, "Those who had surrounded had their arms tied behind their backs so that their ribs stuck out. They were shot dead." This provides the seriousness of the matter and allows the audience to interpret the story in any way.