Spoken Truths was a verbatim theatre show based on research undertaken into the ‘unspoken truths’ of the charity sector by businessman, charity CEO and Clore Social Fellow David Russell.
David looked into issues including where funding actually goes, how beneficiaries are represented, and how ‘success’ is measured in the charity sector. He didn’t want to produce another report which would lie in a drawer, so he commissioned me to work with him on turning his findings into an hour-long piece of theatre for an invited audience of people working in charities.
One of these invited people was a producer for BBC Radio, who was so moved by his stories that she commissioned David to turn it into an episode of Four Thought, called ‘Big Charity, Big Business’, which aired on BBC Radio 4 in August 2015. You can listen to it here.
For more info about ‘Spoken Truths’, and to hear a recording of the original performance, please click here.
The use of actors talking directly to an audience of charity workers and funders, giving voice to sentiments which their originators found it difficult to make public, was really exciting. It felt like it might change something. For me it was a very direct application of the techniques I learnt from Nicolas Kent during his time at the Tricycle Theatre – and it’s something I’m keen to do more of.