Tribunal Theatre

The Prominence ofthe Document

The main promise is to provide access or connection to reality through the facticity of documents,

but not without creative mediation.

Reinelt, Janelle, 2009. p.23

The Rise of Richard Norton-Taylor

Norton-Taylor, primarily a political journalist for The Guardian has found his niche within the tribunal sector. Collaborating with Artistic director Nicholas Kent, he has condensed and edited numerous inquiry transcriptions.

One play that exceeded all expectations of this genre, ‘The Colour of Justice’, was based solely on trial transcriptions sourced from the public inquiry into the harrowing murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence.

The trial lasted a total of 69 days and produced over 11,000 pages of documentation, in which Norton-Taylor had the substantial task of distilling the document to create a 200 page play-text.

The single source covered weeks of inquest and several thousand pages of transcript; the final product lasted for just over two hours of stage time

Paget, Derek, 1990. p.16

The Fall of the Metropolitan Police

Key concepts highlight within the play-text:

The Pursuit for Stephen’s killers The fight for Justice The portrayed corruption of the Metropolitan Police force

The edited transcripts from the Macpherson inquiry, included in my play The Colour of Justice, show how witnesses damned themselves, leading Macpherson to conclude that the police investigation was ‘marred by a combination of professional incompetence, institutional racism and a failure of leadership by senior officers.

Norton-Taylor, 2012. p.1

Source Documentation – The Legal Transcript

The term transcript refers to the reproduction of a written record.

In legal senses, you could have a duplicate of anytranscribed court hearing, which comes in the form of a lawful transcript.

The legal transcription becomes the original source of material when producing tribunal theatre.

This material becomes the catalyst in creating a theatricalised recreation of the inquiry.

Tribunal writers claim to stay faithful to the transcript in terms of the written document and the chronological court proceedings.

My point is that by dramatising the inquiry transcripts it allows the main details of a protracted story to be drawn together and the crux of the political agendas to be laid forth.

Norton-Taylor, 2008. p.209

Norton-Taylor:Editor or playwright?

The position of an editor in relation to any material is that of an indistinct concept.

Connotations of the word edit suggest that an editor’s role is to merely cut and re-arrange the source material.

With regards to tribunal theatre, it is generally within the editor’s authority to assemble the material to allow for the best possible interpretation.

The writer of verbatim drama is often referred to as an editor as opposed to a playwright, as they are not seen to be writing nor creating the material, but to dramatically edit to create a performative representation.The fact that the people in his plays actually exist and the words in his plays were actually spoken in no way alters his role as a dramatist.

Hare, David, 2008. p.10

Selective Editing…

A. Yes.Q. Is that Inspector Groves?A. Inspector Groves, yes.Q. We will hear from him tomorrow, and half a dozen constables?A. Yes, that is correct.Q. I will not for a moment seek to identify precisely who they were. You were called to the scene of what we know now to be Stephen Lawrence’s murder?

Q. Roughly how many of you would there be and of what rank? A. Possibly an inspector, sergeant and six Pcs on each vehicle.Q. You let your voice drop occasionally. I do not think we picked that up? Q. There would be one inspector, three sergeants and 21 PCS- this is the Commissioners reserve and it would be shared equally. Q. So far as we are concerned on the night in question, you were on this particular carrier…correct? A. Yes that is correct. Q. Was the Inspector with you that night?

Thursday 26th March 1998, Evidence of Sergeant Clement.

Authenticity of the Document

Notions of truth and accuracy become the subject of careful debate.

Dramatic interpretation or factual representation.

How authentically credible does the play-text need to be in order to stay faithful to the document?

Selective editing.

How difficult is it to create a fair and balanced representation?

The concepts of reliability and accuracy refers to the trustworthiness of a record as a statement of fact.

Lee, Brent, 2005. p.1