Verbatim Theatre is a form of documentary theatre in which the script is constructed from the exact words spoken by real people, usually taken from interviews, recordings, or transcripts. The aim is to present authentic voices and lived experiences, often in response to social, political, or historical events.
Paul Levy spoke with the creator of verbatim theatre production, Drowning in the Sound, Andrew Martin Lee, which plays Brighton Fringe 2025, and also Chichester Fringe 2025.
The Midnight Florists “present an ‘unflinching’ exploration of communal healing, reshaping how we think, feel, and talk about assault. A reperformance of survival, and examination, not of the act but the consequence, not the fall but the rise. A gathering of voices channelled through surrogate mouths.
“Drawing from over forty hours of verbatim recordings from survivors of domestic, coercive, and sexual violence, we tell the stories of “Alex,” “Sarah,” and “Maisie” in their own words. Through music, dance, multimedia, and broadcast, Drowning in the Sound shifts the narrative from the perpetrators to the survivors, celebrating their resilience.”
