London Road

England's National Theatre adapts their play about the impact of a possible serial killer on a local community in 2006-2007.

The piece is a "verbatim musical" in that the dialogue is based on transcribed interviews with residents and media representatives which has been edited and performed as lyrics. The arrangements are reminiscent of the Steve Reich / Kronos Quartet piece "Different Trains", with frequent starts, stops and repeated phrases. The composers skillfully adapt the cadence of normal speech into song and there are several beautiful transitions from speech to singing.

Even though the production has been opened up to move it from stage to the real world, it still is very much a theatrical production. This isn't a problem, as the performances provide a heightened sense of reality. The "stage-y" quality is part of its charm.

Unfortunately, the ending is a bit mis-handled. They opted for a positive end to the film and it feels like it [the narrative] just evaporates without a clear finish.

An interesting experiment worth seeing.