For many, the theatre is a space we enter to encounter something unknown that is usually different to what we are used to in real life. We come into the theatre with this expectation to be taken into another world through music, dance, drama and movement. In that sense “Is this a room” is an absolute flip to this idea. A verbatim transcript from a real life interrogation between 3 FBI agents and Reality Winner forms the basis of this 70 minute long work. The work sees Reality’s reality on a fateful morning in her home come to life on stage.
When asked during the post show conversation, director Tina Slater candidly shares how she stumbled upon this transcript on the internet and quite quickly saw it as a script for a theatre production. “I was immediately fascinated. It read like a script for a theatre work. This time, instead of characters it was participants. Real life participants of an actual interrogation.” Tina shares.
The play begins with Reality being confronted at home by FBI agents. Initially seeming to be an innocent victim of the authority, the play unfolds as we begin to understand how this seemingly simple young NSA contractor has committed a major federal crime. Intense, Verbose, and Gripping are 3 words that best describe my experience of this play.
Is This A Room. Photography by Tristan McKenzie.
The work treated the original transcript with a kind of sanctity that I found unusual for theatre. The direction seemed to have almost no room for flexibility, freedom of interpretation and expression. Initially, I found myself wondering if I was really going to enjoy this never ending barrage of words, words and more words. There was no movement or music to allow for some kind of creative imagination or expression.
Yet, around 15 minutes in I found myself drawn to the plight of this young lady. The rebel in me was beginning to feel a little defiant and annoyed at the authoritative and (at times) condescending and chauvinistic nature of the FBI agents. I was immersed in the moment of this interrogation.
It is not often we come across theatre that seeks to emulate real life events to such a level of exactness. It is not often we come across theatre that is so singularly inspired by the actual words, in this case an interrogation transcript, spoken in real life by the participants in an FBI interrogation. It is very clever to think of such a transcript as a script for a theatre work. It is bold to then stage a work that remains so true to the original transcript. And finally, it is remarkable the manner in which the intensity of that real moment on June 3rd 2017 in Reality’s home, has been recreated on stage.
Is This A Room. Photography by Tristan McKenzie.
All 4 actors were fantastic in their delivery of the characters. The entire work was crafted around a simple platform set that was further raised on each end. The actors moved around the platform throughout the 70 minute production with an intensity and conviction that brought the essence of each character to life. The lighting design was also inspired by the content of the transcript where redacted sections on the published transcript was depicted by dramatic lighting changes. A very minimalistic sound design was adopted, again allowing for the original transcript to take centre stage. It felt like the direction taken for this play was seeking to bring to life, through the sound of the transcript, the energy of the actual real life event. And if this was the intent, then the creators truly succeeded.
Is This A Room challenged my notion of what my experience in the theatre could be. A place I usually go to, to momentarily leave the material “real” world behind, suddenly placed a very current event from the real world on its stage. An event that occurred in the living room of a seemingly normal girl from next door. Is this a room also offered me an opportunity to reflect upon the reality of what happens across the many episodes of life. Perhaps if we read it like a transcript, the words from some of our life events could seem intense and rather haunting.