Tribunal Plays and Verbatim Theatre

Abstract

The paper’s aim is to offer an overview on a diverse and dynamic phenomenon, as documentary theatre in Britain, with accents on two of the most visible  directions, that it follows on the last decades: verbatim and tribunal theatre. Since the mid ‘90s, a period dominated by apathy and detachment, these  formulas have been proving their efficiency, on the one hand, by investigating and researching some current, urgent, national and international topics, and  on the other hand by calling new strategies for addressing and engaging the audience. Meanwhile these practices based on ”the truth” that comes from  documents and interviews generate particular questions about the relationship between ethic and esthetic, between objective and subjective, between real  and fictional. Documentary theatre, and particularly verbatim theatre deals with a dilemma: how to create a theatrical viable experience, without distorting  the documentary source?