“...resolutely truthful and non-actorly work, with a beautifully
accurate rendering of the cadences, timing and slippages of real
speech as opposed to the well crafted phoniness of actors
reciting 
lines.” - The Sydney Morning Herald
lines.” - The Sydney Morning Herald“I’m happy about (the show). Before I die I like to give people
something. My family couldn’t believe it. They didn’t believe my
stories were so popular ...” - Hildegard Zywko, 84yrs old
Interviewee, Fast Cars & Tractor Engines
Since 2001 Roslyn has been creating performances derived directly from carefully constructed audio recordings. Through the disciplined recreation of these ‘audio-scripts’ in performance, her work aims to recontextualise rarely heard or misrepresented Australian voices. The work magnifies candid, personal stories from within a specific community as a means of exploring broader political and social tensions. As a theatre maker, she operates from the principle there is as much information embedded in the way someone speaks, as what they are saying.
Roslyn’s creative process includes an extensive collection phase, during which she draws material from a variety of audio sources including interview, media and found recordings. In performance, she employ a headphone-verbatim technique that requires actors to wear headphones, via which they are fed an audio-script. The actors recite this audio-script with absolute precision (like a musician following a score), recreating the exact speech patterns of original interviewees. The result is a hyper-natural form of documentary theatre that evokes the essence of the audio source with fidelity – even if the performer is of a conflicting gender, age or racial background to the original speaker. Visual appearance is rendered unreliable and the audience’s focus shifts into a heightened state of listening.
History of Technique
The headphone-verbatim form was introduced by British director, Mark Wing-Davey, in his Drama Without Paper Workshop (2001), at the London Actor’s Centre. Then head of the London Actor’s Centre, Wing-Davey was inspired by time spent working with Anna Devere-Smith, who listened to recorded interviews during her rehearsal process. During his Drama Without Paper Workshop, Wing-Davey extended upon Devere’s rehearsal technique to explore the impact of performers being fed audio recordings during performance. This workshop had a significant influence on several of the performance-makers in attendance, including Alecky Blythe who went on to form the UK-based company Recorded Delivery and Australian director Roslyn Oades. Roslyn initially explored the form with the short-lived ensemble, Non Fiction theatre (London, 2001-2002), under the direction of Mark Wing-Davey before returning to Australia where she has continued to pioneer her own distinct approach to this technique. After several productive attempts at converting oral history material into short contemporary performance pieces at BYDS, in 2003 Roslyn was invited to create her first full-length production with Urban Theatre Projects. The result was the critically acclaimed Fast Cars & Tractor Engines (UTP 2005; later remounted for a Sydney tour in 2006).
Artistic Team
Roslyn works with an ongoing core-ensemble of artists as well as a team of project-based artistic associates. As writer and director on her productions she relies heavily on the input of these collaborators and they have had a significant impact on her creative process and the continued development of this unique performance technique:
THE ENSEMBLE:
Mohammed Ahmad performer / collaborator
Katia Molino performer / collaborator
Andrew Ma writing consultant
ARTISTIC ASSOCIATES:
Janie Gibson
Roderic Byrnes
Neil Simpson
Chris Ryan
Oonagh Sherrard
Vico Thai
