Playing for real in Max Stafford-Clark's Talking to Terrorists

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article explores acting processes in Max Stafford-Clark's production of Robin Soans' verbatim play Talking to Terrorists (2005). With reference to new interview material with cast, writer and director, I interrogate the particular demands of playing a real person in a production in which the cast were involved in the play's research. In two research periods and in rehearsals, many of the actors interviewed the individual they played, and these meetings provided material for the script. Following the cast's focus, this article investigates preparatory and rehearsal processes. Using Jean Benedetti's re-translation of Stanislavski's work (An Actor's Work (2008) and An Actor's Work on a Role (2010)), I put the actor's Stanislavski-inspired vocabulary under the microscope to establish whether his work provides an appropriate terminology to illuminate these processes. This article highlights some of the challenges of portraying a real person and also identifies the negotiations and tensions between the actors' preparation and the director's own working methods. My analysis of the actors' testimony also suggests why acting processes have been overlooked despite the surge of research into verbatim theatre.