Tales From The MP3

Verbatim theatre, assembled documentary style from the exact words of transcribed reality, is an inherently dicey premise. The paramount concern is truth, not art – though there is no reason the two cannot coincide. As such, the play in question must make do with the material it is dealt. The end result relies upon the actors' reconstruction, rather than a playwright's interpretation. Performance matters just as much as content.

It is to the credit of Liverpool-based theatre company 20 Stories High that they have hit upon a fairly original approach to the idea. The cast are hooked up throughout to syncronised mp3 players, listening to the original recordings which they repeat only seconds later, with little time for imaginative alteration. Secondly, and most importantly, the reality they re-enact is their own: the recordings are taken from conversations between the young members of 20 Stories High. They are playing themselves – up to a point.

If Tales From The MP3 was simply a troupe of actors repeating their own words and talking about their own lives, it would run the risk of self-indulgence. Fortunately, the play has a simple but effective way around this pitfall: they swap characters. As often as not, gender and racial identities are exchanged as well. This highlights both the uniqueness and the universality of the perspectives being articulated. While it drags at times, and seems to end purely because their time and material has run out, Tales From The MP3 is a worthy experiment.