Two powerful and confronting plays reaching to the heart of murder.

Following a sell-out 2013 season, Last Tapes Theatre Company and JustSpeak are proud to present the national tour of VERBATIM - travelling to secondary schools, prisons, and theatres from Kaitaia to Invercargill. 

VERBATIM is an evening of two short plays that allow some of New Zealand’s most marginalised voices to tell their own stories, in their own words. Verbatim (William Brandt and Miranda Harcourt) and Portraits (Stuart McKenzie and Miranda Harcourt) were developed through interviews with violent offenders, their families, and their victim’s families. The plays are a form of docu-drama, where the truth cannot be hidden because the words are not embellished. Hear New Zealand’s prisoners, their families at home, their victims’ parents in pain. See the damage, hurt, forgiveness and hatred. Learn their truths.

“Touching, affecting, moving” – Nik Smythe, Theatreview

Hot off the heels of a national tour of her stunning stage show Nick: An Accidental Hero, Renée Lyons brings her chameleonic talents to Verbatim, while screen favourites Jodie Rimmer (In My Father’s Den, Nothing Trivial) and Fraser Brown (Field Punishment Number One, Erebus: Operation Overdue) bring powerful, intimate performances to the stage in Portraits.

A collaboration between Last Tapes Theatre Company and justice reform group JustSpeak, VERBATIM gives an intimate insight into lives filled with loss.

Directed by Jeff Szusterman.

Warning: Please be advised that these works contain some potentially distressing material, including coarse language and descriptions of sexual violence.

www.lasttapestheatre.co.nz
www.justspeak.org.nz