HORSE MOUTH

(Straight) from the horse's mouth: To hear something (straight) from the horse's mouth, is to hear it from the person who has direct personal knowledge of it. To attain information from the original source.

 

The principal motivation driving the project was to create a verbatim film. Although I am aware of plenty of verbatim theatre pieces, I have only seen one instance of verbatim used in film. In this instance the style was used for comedic effect, rather than to be informative and testimonial. I have taken an investigative journalism approach and communicated it back to my audience in the form of a verbatim film. The verbatim element is very important, as I wanted to concentrate on issues which focus on the fringes of society, and the security that my interviewees felt knowing that everything they said would be completely anonymous meant that they could speak freely without fear of consequences in their everyday lives.  I wanted to capture casual conversations, not intent on delivering an answer but sparking conversation; creating a lens through which to view the reality of a situation.  With this in mind, I have decided to concentrate my project on Newcastle’s escorting industry, from the point of view of the people working and spending within it.

My initial research into verbatim theatre lead me to Liz Tomlin’s book: Acts and Apparitions, and her chapter on verbatim: Representing the real: verbatim practise in a sceptical age, has completely changed the way I view my project. One particular quote in particular perfectly summarises why I feel so passionate about creating this work. Tomlin cites Linda Ben-Zvi (professor emeritae, Tel Aviv university and Colorado State University ) in defining contemporary verbatim practise as:

 

“(1) A desire to reinstate the voices and experiences of those written out of history; (2) a belief that the words of individuals telling their stories can provide a powerful corrective to the mediatised versions of reality claiming legitimacy; and (3) a recognition of the power of performance to challenge the master narratives and discourses of history.”

 

It is my belief that most portrayals of the escorting industry (including verbatim play The Girlfriend Experience, written by Alecky Blythe) succumb to stereotype and presumptions which turn the people involved into objects of cultural tourism. Rather than viewing the industry as made up of individuals -each with their own stories and experiences - a wide brush is used to paint an inaccurate picture of what goes on, resulting in a further distancing of those involved from the society they belong to. Although anonymity is part of the reason I have chosen to make my film Verbatim rather than straight documentary, another reason for this decision is I hope that by using actors, I can disrupt the objectification of the individuals themselves, and instead concentrate on their knowledge of the industry, uncovering any myths and misconceptions through the exploration of the facts by those who have experienced them first-hand.

To claim that I do not have political motivations for this project is untrue. I strongly believe that the criminalisation of prostitution in a capitalist society which seeks to profit from almost every other service is completely nonsensical. A society that finds it morally acceptable to sell weapons that fuel violence and wars, but refuses to accept people making money by selling sex seems entirely hypocritical. However what I want to avoid doing is creating a narrative with a moral incentive, but rather present the facts, as told and explained by the people whose lives they directly affect, in order that the distance between mainstream society and this enigmatic industry can be bridged in a way that is beneficial to both sides.

The escorting industry is one shrouded in mystery. The word discretion is one that features heavily in everything I have witnessed, both from the perspective of the clients and the escorts. The legal loopholes in laws about prostitution in the UK are what give this industry its viability; however the restrictions of working through such a loophole are apparent when you start to look at the attitude of the people involved. The women working do so under fabricated identities, advertising under pseudonyms and concealing their faces in any pictures used. Among their male clients there is a fear of judgement by society, as well as legal concerns regarding everything from what constitutes a brothel to whether agencies are in fact glorified pimps.  It is an industry as complex as it is secretive, the foundations of which are built upon real human desires to succeed financially, to feel attractive and to explore intimacy and fetish in a non-judgemental, no strings attached environment. Because of the strict laws on prostitution, and belonging to a culture whose views on sex are still, in the main, shaped by traditional values and monogamy, the people working and spending within the industry are pushed to the fringes of society.

One of my close friends is currently working as an escort, and I have witnessed first-hand how incredibly ill-informed about the industry some people are. In popular culture, it seems to me that sex work is portrayed in two ways: either incredibly rough or incredibly glamorous. Images of women in fishnets working the streets for drug money represent the harsh side of prostitution, whilst at the other end of the scale programs such as “Secret Diary of a Call Girl” take us into the glamorous world of high end escorting, all lavishly dressed up for a TV audience. As a lot of peoples only experience of the industry is through these two narrow lenses, it is not surprising that misconceptions and speculation surround it.

Using my friend as an entry point into the industry, I have met two escorts working in Newcastle, and one of their clients, also local. Through initial discussions with them and several in depth interviews, I have compiled the script for Garden of Eva. It is my aim that the film will educate those outside the industry, and give a voice to those so often misrepresented within it.

All of this is the basis of HorseMouth, whose name is contrived from the old saying.