Alecky Blythe: 'To get interviews, there are certain risks'
Alecky Blythe makes verbatim theatre shows, recording interviews in real life and then relaying the edited scripts to the cast through earphones in live performance. The actors retain the original speakers' hesitations and half-sentences.
London Road, your 2011 musical about the Ipswich community dealing with the murders of five sex workers in 2006, has been nominated for four Olivier awards and is returning to the National Theatre this summer. What made you think a musical about that subject was a good idea?
When I first went to Ipswich, I didn't know what it was going to be. I got a lot of [interview material from local residents] before Steve Wright was arrested [and later convicted of killing the five women]. There was a heightened sense of fear. I always try to work like that, try to get things in the present tense, rather than after the events because people are emotionally in a different place so they speak differently.
I got invited to a writers' and composers' workshop at the National Theatre Studio and took it along. The material seemed to respond well to musical intervention.
Of course we asked ourselves questions about taste and about whether it was right but the music brought it to life.
Do you ever worry about your safety?
[There have been] a couple of moments. In Ipswich, there was a time when Steve Wright had been arrested but you thought they might have got the wrong guy. Somebody asked me if I wanted to go to his house for a cup of tea, and I thought, "No, I can't, I don't want to, I am quite happy to stand in the street and talk to you in the freezing cold." You just have to be careful, but at the same time, to get interviews there are certain risks.
When the National initially announced plans for the show, the Daily Mail ran the headline, "Theatre show about the Suffolk Strangler's killing spree to be staged". Did that annoy you?
I was really angry. It caused serious concern for the families of the girls, because they immediately thought it was going to be some gruesome reconstruction of their daughters' lives, which they had no idea was happening. Understandably, they got very worried, so I then tried to do what I could to allay those fears and explained that they weren't portrayed, nor were their daughters, and it was about the community. But we felt vindicated when the Daily Mail came along and gave it four stars.
How did you first begin working in verbatim theatre?
I was an actor and I wasn't getting very much work. I learned the technique from Mark Wing-Davey and made a piece to try to get myself work as an actor.
For your first play, Come Out Eli, you interviewed the hostage of a siege that had taken place in Hackney, in London. That must have been an emotionally charged meeting.
I thought it was going to be very serious, but he wanted to gain something from his interview – he was asking for quite a lot of money, which I didn't have because none of us were getting paid, or to sleep with me. And that was just on the phone. That then became part of the piece, and I became a character in the play. Miranda Hart played me, and, dramatically, it was great. In case you are wondering, the deal I struck with the hostage to get his interview was £50, lunch, and no sex.
Has anyone ever said, "I didn't say that"?
No, more often it is about the things you might cut out. The struggle I have in the editing is trying to do a balanced portrayal.
Are you a control freak?
The whole premise of my work is very pedantic and that is the only way it works. But, in life generally, I don't really pay that much attention to detail; I can be sloppy with things. I obviously save it all up for the rehearsal room.
Your new show, Where Have I Been All My Life?, is about a talent contest in Stoke. Why?
I found Stoke's Top Talent, the competition that the play is based on, resonates particularly strongly with that community. In an area where there isn't a lot of opportunity, it gives people a lot of hope. I also wanted to tackle a subject that people think they know about and show a side of it that you don't get to see on TV talent shows.
Do you watch Britain's Got Talent?
No, I don't. I know the format, but I am not a follower.
What would your talent be?
I used to recite poems when I was little, but that's as far as it goes. I am in awe of people who can get up there. I find that petrifying.
You are working on a project about the 2011 riots at the moment…
I can't really go into it, but it's for BBC2, to go out in July, and it's about the riots. We are very excited about it because, for the first time on TV, the actors will be wearing hidden earphones. That is always how I performed, and London Road was the first piece where the actors learned the lines. What the earphones do is keep the actors incredibly faithful to the original delivery of the lines. I am really chuffed that they have completely bought into the technique.
Do you think you are bringing verbatim theatre to wider audience?
Yes, when I first did it as an actor and saw people use this technique, I was completely blown away by it, so it is great to be taking it to bigger audiences. When I was first doing it, it was seen as slightly fringey, a bit weird, a bit odd. But it is incredibly engaging and shouldn't be confined to small rooms above pubs in north London.
What is your earliest memory of the theatre?
It was less about going to see something. My inspiration was a teacher who taught me speech and drama. I have actually taken her surname – I changed my name when I was an actor to Blythe and that was the name of my inspirational teacher when I was seven.
How do you wind down?
I like a little bit of gardening and I run a bit, which helps clear my head.
Where Have I Been All My Life? is at the New Vic theatre, Newcastle-under-Lyme, until 28 April