The Unspoken (Unlisted)
For the 2023 DramaSoc production, see this entry.For the 2024 Dark Slate Theatre Company version, see this entry.
Details
Name: The Unspoken
My Roles: Director / Writer / Designer / Cast
Performed: 14th March 2021 [cancelled]
"Think of all the lies you’ve told to get yourself here. Think of all the damage that would be done if he were to leave here alive and speak the unspoken. Everything you’ve worked for, all the improvements and reformations, undone. Your life, over. Are you really going to let that good-for-nothing be the one that breaks you?"
~ Carmen, to the Waiter
Had 'The Unspoken' been allowed to complete (before being cancelled due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic), it would have been a 30-minute piece of immersive theatre, and the most experimental production at my school to date.
I approached the drama department at my school with the idea of taking one of my A-Level coursework projects and extending it into a fully fledged production. Following the idea being given the go-ahead, I developed the idea with the assistance of my fellow year 13 drama student.
The initial, albeit condensed brief for the production is as follows: ‘It’s 1930. Prohibition-era America. The Waiter has been running his Speakeasy for 2 months now, following the previous owner’s presumed-death in a police shootout. When the past comes back to haunt him, his web of lies begins to collapse, and he must demonstrate just how far he is willing to go to keep his power.’ The story of 'The Unspoken' focused on two central characters:
The Waiter - The stern, calm owner of the Speakeasy. He does not speak much, but his actions speak volumes
Billy - The previous owner of the Speakeasy. He was presumed dead, having been struck in a police shootout 2 months prior to the events of the show taking place.
As the show developed with these two interweaving characters, the circumstances under which Billy was shot start to become unclear, and the true, far more sinister nature of the Waiter begins to be revealed.
Within the crew of 'The Unspoken', I had held a variety of different roles, including those of director, writer, designer, as well as performing as one of the leads through my portrayal of 'the Waiter'.
To create a piece of immersive theatre, it requires a complete transformation of the chosen space, which, for us, meant transforming our drama studio (which, conveniently, was in the basement of a disused church) into a speakeasy. This was no easy task, and required incredibly careful planning and consideration. Everything about the set needed to feel authentic, and so I went about creating multiple floor plans that detailed different potential configurations of the set, until we eventually settled on one.
To achieve the look and feel of a 1930’s speakeasy that we were hoping to create, we had extensively studied productions that were similar in aesthetic to ours, as well as contacting and talking to the education officer of the immersive theatre company ‘Les Enfants Terribles’, in order to widen our understanding of the style.
Unfortunately, 'The Unspoken', much like 'The Macbeths', fell prey to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, with the script almost fully written, I see adapting it later down the line as a possibility.
[ EDIT: Re-adapting it is something that has now actually happened! You can read about the new version here! ]
