Telling the Truth: How to make Verbatim Theatre by Robin Belfield

Theatre director and writer Robin Belfield draws on his own experience and some very useful research to offer a step-by-step breakdown of the process in making verbatim theatre.

Each chapter is well laid out, with sub-headings, bold type and italics to draw the eye meaning that whether you're scanning for something specific, or deeply reading every word, you are well-served. Pages are not too dense or busy, and at 163 pages in length overall it is useful without being a chore to get through.

The order of the chapters: the subject, the research, the words, the story, the edit, the ethics, the actors, the staging, the golden rules – is very logical, again making this an easy book to pick up and use. It will guide you from the very first part of a verbatim project in choosing what the performance should be about, through tips on how to conduct research (including ethical and legal considerations), onto preparing the actors for performances.

Belfield writes this from a first-person perspective, with a nice balance between his experience and his research. In terms of research, there are examples of celebrated verbatim theatre pieces from recent and past times which offer insights to back up the process guides and exercise ideas. There are also interviews with writers, directors and actors such as Alecky Blythe and A.C.H Smith which offer rich understanding and fascinating experiences to draw upon if making one's own work, or just interesting reads to understand this form of theatre. It does read slightly more for a theatre-maker than a teacher with students, but with older students and adaptations, the exercises would all be applicable; one could pick and mix from the offered exercises, or follow in the prescribed order.

I suppose the greatest compliment I could pay the book is that I am 77,000 words into a PhD on verbatim theatre and while I found lots of the ideas and research comfortingly familiar, I also learnt new things. I also felt that I could use it beyond my research as a drama teacher. All in all, this book is a success and recommended on many levels.