Wow! Productions
Te Whare o Rukutia
Sunday, August 28
Voices of people living with dementia are conveyed with conviction in WOW! Production’s verbatim play The Keys Are In the Margarine.
Verbatim theatre means actors listen to recorded interviews through in-ear headphones and in real-time, relay the words to the audience, aiming to replicate every hesitation and tone without embellishment. The result is a curious combination of documentary and drama that had this audience gripped from beginning to end.
From the start, the nature of the piece was clearly established as the actors stepped on stage to pick up a wireless receiver and headphones, a conscious exposing of the mechanics which set a serious tone.
Four actors — Cindy Diver, Nadya Shaw Bennett, Ross Johnston and Serena Cotton — then channelled the words of 17 people, including caregivers, family members and those personally experiencing dementia.
Deft lighting changes by technical operator Anna van den Bosch allowed actors to step in and out of the shadows, delivering the words of their interviewees simply and accurately.
The stories of loved ones losing their memory, of simple tasks becoming unmanageable, and of families struggling to maintain joy in their lives, chimed with the audience, and small sighs of recognition or groans of sympathy could be heard throughout.
A moment of levity was provided by a trio of hospice nurses given voice by Diver, Shaw Bennett and Cotton.
Their black humour, moments of speaking over each other and finishing each other’s sentences was not only a chance to briefly break away from the dark tone of the play, but also a masterful achievement by the three actors.
Johnston, transmitting the voices of three men, provided an authentic sense of men struggling to communicate their feelings.
The very nature of verbatim theatre means every hesitation, pause and stumble gives added meaning to the story, and the actors had the ability to share something deeply true.
