From street to stage

Alecky Blythe explains to Dominic Cavendish in The Daily Telegraph why she writes plays using verbatim speech from real people.

Blythe, 33, warmed immediately to the idea of forcing actors to replicate the minutiae of others' speech: "They can't fall into their own speech-patterns. Their egos get lost in the effort of concentrating, which is acting as it should be, but so rarely is." But it's the content rather than the style that most appeals, the chance to get closer to ordinary people, and find out what's going on in their heads.