Is a dramatically read monologue the same as a dramatised poem performed instead of recited? The question made me take a step back and question the parallels between the worlds of theatre and spoken word poetry. This here is the result of my brain thrashing it out with itself.
“Maybe someday, with my feeble poetic ability, I will write you.” – Simran Achpal, a poet who captures in that one line, my perennial struggle with doing justice to my experiences.
Sarah Kay, in a TED talk, once said that spoken word poetry was like the child of theatre and poetry writing. That would probably be the closest I have come to a definition of spoken word.
Spoken word poetry uses wordplay, metaphors and details just like page poetry but these devices are used to create an impact when heard or watched and not when read. For instance the most brilliant poetry may make next to no impact at a slam because of the void in performativity. Those are poems to be read, so that the poet’s restrictions and their overcoming of those restrictions be fully appreciated.
I lift my lids and all is born again.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)”
The full beauty and significance of the afterthought in these lines by Plath, comes out only when viewed.
Similarly, a spoken word poem will definitely lack the impact it may have at a slam when submitted in written form for evaluation. Take this transcript of ‘When Love Arrives” by Sarah Kay and Phil Kaye. It seems pretty bland as compared to the performance because it lacks the modulation, the facial expressions, the _realness_ the situation demands when seen as lines of text-
“Hello ?” (*Heavy breathing*)
“I guess they hung up“
This is similar to the difference between writing a story and writing a script. A script definitely has more impact when performed than when just read. Think of a cold read of a script on the first day the cast receives it versus the first run through. The latter is certainly more engaging. But a novel needn’t be read out and dramatised to be gripping. In fact, it could have quite the opposite effect. Script and story can be adapted into the other but that adaptation too is a craft.
Theatre has many different forms- mime, street theatre, proscenium performances, devised pieces, dance dramas and a ton of others. Now, as you can see, these aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive. You can have a devised dance drama created for performance on a proscenium stage.
Similarly, spoken word poetry can be for a slam, can be read out or recited with just the pauses and stresses or can be dramatised to a monologue. These different approaches can also be blended. One can have a dramatic read at a simple gathering or a stoic read with the smallest bit of modulation at a slam. It’s about choosing the best vehicle for your piece, bouncing off the energy of the audience and possibly taking risks that may or may not pay off with regard to how you style a performance.
The script remains paramount in performance poetry. While tailoring it on stage is quite common, the performer has to make sure the focus remains on the strength of the poem and not just the panache of the theatrics. In this way, spoken word is almost like Shakespeare’s original scripts. The iambic pentameter and wordplay cannot be foregrounded by the actor speaking in a cadence but it must also be respected because of the oceans of meaning lost if it isn’t. Subtext is vital. Context is enriching.
But text is the spine of the piece. A good poem gets less applause than a good performance but if the artist wishes to stay true to their craft, the artist should prioritise the poem and then approach the theatrical element.
Spoken word poetry or performance poetry of any kind, in my view is a form of theatre where the playwright is necessarily the lead, director, editor and dramaturg. Anyone else stepping in (an adaptation or abridging of a play, for example. I can imagine an Indian Stanley Kowalski, living in a small apartment in Mumbai) and trying to influence the performance style of the piece will necessarily compromise authenticity because after the text being paramount, the other point of difference in spoken word is that one cannot take another’s voice; another’s poem; and make it one’s own. Because of the personal involvement characteristic of the art form, borrowing or even slightly changing is seen as dilution (best case) and appropriation (worst case) of the piece, unlike theatre where different representations are more than welcome.
This is a highly personal quote from Sabrina Benaim’s poem about her encounters with depression, “It’s just not that fun having fun when you don’t want to have fun, Mom.”
Someone else’s depression may not be the same as hers and ‘adapting’ the poem seems almost like plagiarism of life experiences.
To compare my experiences with both:
“As I step on stage to perform in a play, my skin is my character’s- unfamiliar birthmarks, perhaps a different skin tone, a story I may not completely know, cues slotted into the sides of my cheeks.
As I step on stage to perform a poem I have written, my skin is my own, stretched tight over my jaw so that my story pours from my lips like my own drumbeat, my experience playing like a sepia film in the back of my mind.”
Thespo Ink 