Doc and Dram

In The Guardian, Guild President David Edgar examines the rise of the documentary play.

Fact-based theatre calls attention to, and thus questions, the credibility of the evidence on which we base our view of the world. Unlike naturalistic drama, which invites us to suspend disbelief, verbatim drama wears its sources on its sleeve. At a time when people are highly distrustful of public information, the presentation of witnesses in the theatre invites us to cross-examine. Testimony theatre can be simultaneously reliant on and suspicious of its raw materials.