Clarence Darrow
Teaching Resources
CONTENTS
Clarence Darrow: Short Biography
3
Clarence Darrow: Timeline
4
Trial Cases
5
Clarence Darrow: Synopsis
7
Clarence Darrow: Act Breakdown
8
Themes of the Play
10
Holding Out for a Hero
11
Re-Presenting Real Life
12
Kevin Spacey: Why I Chose to Play Clarence Darrow 13
Interview with Liz Moon, Marketing Executive
14
Activities
15
Making Verbatim Theatre
16
Bibliography
17
The Old Vic Teaching Resources
Old Vic New Voices Education
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© The Old Vic, 2015. All information
is correct at the time of going to
press, but may be subject to change
Clarence Darrow
By David W Rintels
Teaching Resources
Compiled by Roxanne Peak Payne
Design Peter Collins
Cover photography Jay Brooks
Rehearsal and production
photography Manuel Harlan
Old Vic New Voices
Director Alexander Ferris
Education & Community Manager
Hannah Fosker
Intern Ross Crosby
Further details of this production
oldvictheatre.com
2
CLARENCE DARROW:
SHORT BIOGRAPHY
Clarence Seward Darrow is one of the most famous, revered
and controversial trial lawyers in American history. He was
active in thousands of trials, many of which reflected social
and philosophical issues of the time.
Darrow was born in to a poor family on 18 April 1857 in
Ohio. At school he was an unexceptional student, but
with his father’s encouragement he read widely from
the extensive family library to educate himself. Darrow’s
entrance into the practice of law was made more difficult
by finance. He left his studies at Allegheny College after
one year for lack of money. After three years teaching in a
rural schoolhouse and one year at the Michigan University
Law School, where he again withdrew for lack of fees,
Darrow gained an apprenticeship with a law firm in Ohio.
There, he read the law and passed the bar exam in 1878 at
the age of 21. Returning home, he married his childhood
sweetheart, Jessie Ohl, began his own practice in rural Ohio
towns, and fathered his only child, a son named Paul.
In search of a better income for his family and eager for
opportunity, Darrow moved to Chicago – then the
commercial and cultural centre of the Midwest – in 1887
which was where his career in law really took off. Over the
next 50 years he fought hundreds of cases in Chicago and
across America, initially as a corporate, then labour and finally
as a criminal defence lawyer. See ‘Trial Cases’ for more detail
on his career highlights.
Darrow was particularly revered for his support of labor
(workers rights), minority groups, poor people, criminals; and,
always his defence of freedom. He used the courtroom as a
forum to persuade not only the jury but also the entire country
of his definition of justice. He achieved mythical status during
his lifetime, ‘as a defender of the underdog, a devil’s advocate,
a man who stood perpetually opposed to the great and
powerful of the earth’ (Maloney in Hochmuth: 1955).
Darrow died in Chicago in 1938, at the age of 81. Thousands
of people lined up in the rain to say goodbye. Popular and
academic biographies, as well as theatre, film, and television
dramatisations of his career and life continue to be made, and
have secured his place in American law and history.
Kevin Spacey
‘I may hate the sin, but never the sinner’
Clarence Darrow
The Old Vic Teaching Resources
3
CLARENCE DARROW:
TIMELINE
1857 Born in Kinsman, Ohio, USA on 18 April
1874 Attended Allegheny College and the
University of Michigan Law School, but
did not graduate from either
1896 Ran for Congress as a Democrat but lost
to Hugh R Belknap
1897 Marriage to Jessie Ohl ended
in divorce
1880 Marries Jessie Ohl
1902 Represented United Mine Workers in
Pennsylvania in the great anthracite coal
strike
1888 Moves to Chicago with Jessie and young
son, Paul
1903 Married Ruby Hamerstrom, a Chicago
newspaper journalist
1888 Appointed as a special assessment
attorney by Mayor DeWitt Cregier,
of Chicago
1906 Represented the Western Federation
of Miners leaders who were charged
with the murder of former Idaho
Governor Frank Steunenberg.
The trial lasted until 1908
1878 Admitted to the Ohio bar
1924 Represents Leopold and Loeb who
kidnapped and killed Bobby Franks, a
14-year-old boy
1925 Scopes Monkey Trial which tested the
new law forbidding the teaching of
evolution theory in state-funded schools
1925 Represented Ossian Sweet and codefendants after they killed a white man
in self defence
1925 Retired from full time practice aged 68
1892 Becomes Chief Counsel for the Chicago
and Northwestern Railway
1894 Pullman Strike. Darrow resigns from
his railway job, and represents Eugene
V Debs, the leader of the American
Railway Union, against the federal
government
1894 Darrow took on the first murder case
of his career, defending Patrick Eugene
Prendergast. Prendergast is the only
murder case he defended which resulted
in an execution
1932 Massie Trial in Hawaii, defending an
‘honour killing’
1938 Died on 13 March from pulmonary heart
disease, aged 81
1910 McNamara brothers are charged
with dynamiting the Los Angeles
Times building
1911 American Federation of Labor (AFL)
request Darrow represents the
McNamara brothers
1911 Darrow charged with two counts
of attempting to bribe jurors in the
McNamara case The Old Vic Teaching Resources
4
TRIAL CASES
An overview of some of Darrow’s best-known cases,
covering issues including racial discrimination, worker’s rights,
religion and capital punishment.
Eugene V Debs and the Pullman Strike
McNamara Brothers
The Pullman Strike was a nationwide
railway strike in 1894. The strike shut down
much of the nation’s passenger and heavy
goods traffic. It started due to reductions in
wages for employees of 28%, and terrible
working conditions. Darrow represented
Eugene V Debs, the leader of the American
Railway Union, who was prosecuted by the
government for leading the strike. Darrow
previously worked as a lawyer for Chicago
and North-Western Railway Company, but
resigned from his job to take up the case.
Kevin Spacey
Debs was arrested on federal charges,
including conspiracy to obstruct the mail
as well as disobeying an order directed
to him by the Supreme Court to stop the
obstruction of railways and to dissolve the
boycott. Darrow’s defence strategy was
not to quibble about the disobeying of an
order but to expose the working conditions
imposed upon workers, in this case by the
enormously wealthy Pullman Company.
After describing the terrible working
conditions of Pullman’s workers and their
families, he argued that people had a right
to strike for just causes, and that adequate
wages and safe working conditions were
such causes.
At 1am on 11 October 1910, two explosions
blew apart the Los Angeles Times building
killing 21 people and injuring a further 40.
Darrow reluctantly took on this case in
1911, when he was requested to represent
the accused McNamara brothers on behalf
of the American Federation of Labor,
who appealed to him to defend the labor
movement and the innocent.
an attempt to save them from execution.
The reaction from the brothers’ supporters
was devastating and Darrow was jeered by
a waiting crowd and shunned by the labor
leaders. Darrow never again took another
major labor case.
The defendants had already confessed to
the crime before Darrow started work on
the case, although most labor supporters
in the country still believed they were
innocent and rallied around their cause.
Darrow realised the prosecution had
significant evidence stacked against them
and entered guilty pleas on their behalf in
The case was dropped during trial, but
in a later trial Debs was sentenced to six
months in prison.
One brother was sentenced to life
imprisonment, and the other to 15 years.
Within days of the trial finishing, Darrow
was charged with attempting to bribe
the McNamara’s jury. He quickly became
depressed with no funds or allies to make
a strong defence. However, in the closing
arguments, he defended himself with great
force and clarity leading to an acquittal,
and much applause in the court room.
The Old Vic Teaching Resources
5
Leopold and Loeb
Nathan Leopold, 18 and Richard Loeb, 17
were the teenage sons of two wealthy
Chicago families, who kidnapped and
killed Bobby Franks, a 14-year-old boy from
their upmarket neighbourhood. Leopold
was a law student at the University of
Chicago and Loeb was the youngest ever
graduate from the University of Michigan.
Scopes Monkey Trial
In 1925 a new law was passed in six
states banning the teaching of Charles
Darwin’s evolutionary theory in schools
because it contradicted the story of the
creation in the Bible. A biology teacher,
John Scopes, was outraged by the act
and decided to teach his students about
evolution in his classes. He was arrested
for breaking the law.
the opportunity to criticise the logic of
the Bible by interrogating the prosecuting
lawyer on Bible stories, as well as arguing
that the law was unconstitutional because
it was designed to benefit a particular
religious group, the Fundamentalists. This
event led to a change in public sentiment,
and increased conversation on the subject
of faith versus science.
The court case received a great deal of
publicity in the media, and was seen as
a theological contest as much as a legal
one. Darrow defended Scopes, and took
Scopes was sentenced to pay a $100
fine. The verdict was later overturned
on a technicality.
Racial discrimination was widespread
across America in the 20th century.
All-white communities were afraid
that allowing black people into their
neighbourhoods would lower property
values, so when Dr Ossian Sweet bought
a new house in a white neighbourhood,
he brought his wife and nine other men
with him to help defend his property.
On the first and second nights that
he stayed in the house, huge crowds
gathered outside to protest, and started
to shout and throw stones. Several shots
were fired from inside the house, and a
man in the crowd was killed.
The 11 black people in the house were
arrested and charged with murder. In
court, Darrow argued that there was huge
prejudice skewing the case, and that it
should never have been brought to court.
Darrow’s closing statement, which lasted
over seven hours, is seen as a landmark
in the Civil Rights movement for African
Americans. The all-white jury struggled
to reach an agreement, and the judge
declared a mis-trial.
Ossian Sweet
It was generally assumed that the defence
would be based on a plea of “not guilty by
reason of insanity”, but Darrow anticipated
that the jury would almost certainly convict
the men and they would be sentenced
to the death penalty. Instead, Darrow
recommended they pleaded guilty with
the hope that they would be sentenced
to life imprisonment instead. Darrow also
Many wondered what could have
repeatedly stressed the ages of the “boys”,
motivated the two, privileged young men
as at that time 21 was the legal age of
to commit such a terrible act. They both
adulthood so in the eyes of the law they
gave full confessions, and when asked why were still minors.
they committed the crime, Leopold said:
“a sort of pure love of excitement... the
The judge sentenced the killers to life plus
imaginary love of thrills, doing something
99 years.
different... the satisfaction and the ego of
putting something over”.
Following the retrial, Ossian’s brother
Henry (who admitted to firing the gun)
was found not guilty on grounds of selfdefence, the prosecution dropped the
charges for the remaining ten defendants.
The Old Vic Teaching Resources
6
CLARENCE DARROW:
SYNOPSIS
The play is a dramatic biography of the life of Clarence Darrow,
an American lawyer working in the late 19th and early 20th
century. It is performed by one actor (Kevin Spacey) who plays
Darrow looking back on his own life. We meet him at the end
of his career, and during the play he talks through several
of his most famous and groundbreaking court cases, where
he primarily represents minorities and the poor as a defence
lawyer in court. The play is a combination of biographical
material and transcribed speeches and statements made
by Darrow in court. In the play Darrow also reflects on his
personal life and childhood. The narrative is made up of the
events of his life and career, although it doesn’t follow a
strictly chronological order. The play was written by David
W Rintels in 1975, and is based on Irving Stone’s biography
written in 1941 shortly after Darrow’s death.
Kevin Spacey
The Old Vic Teaching Resources
7
CLARENCE DARROW:
ACT BREAKDOWN
Act I
Darrow’s office
Darrow enters the stage which represents
several spaces in his life -his office, the
court room, his home. He begins by
remembering his early life, his schooling
and family. He explains how he entered the
legal profession, sharing his father’s passion
for justice and being inspired as a young
man, watching a lawyer give a speech in his
hometown on the 4th July.
He explains how he had little education,
spending a year at college and a year at law
school in Ann Arbor before receiving his
first job in the trade drawing up contracts
for horse trading.
He tells us how after a short time, working
in his home time of Ohio he moved to
Chicago with his new wife Jessie, (his
childhood sweetheart) whom he later had a
son named Paul with. He describes how at
that time there was a terrible court case in
the city caused by a peaceful protest where
four innocent men, (in his eyes) known as
the Haymarket Anarchists were sentenced
to death.
He moves onto some of the jobs he took in
his first few years in Chicago, starting with
a job with the city as a Special Assessments
Attorney, and two years at Chicago and
North Western as their general attorney,
before he gave up his corporate work to
defend the labor movement, in particular
Eugene V Debs who was accused of
leading the Pullman Strike. Darrow walks
us through the case and the circumstances
of the strikers such as terrible living and
working conditions. We hear his address to
the jury and the aftermath of Debs’ short
spell in prison.
He talks about the kind of work he took
on after the Debs case, and gives a few
anecdotes from his work during this period.
Darrow revisits the Haymarket Anarchists
case. He describes how a friend of his
became Governor of Illinois, and only after
much pressure pardons the remaining
accused men.
Continuing with his work in support of labor
cases, Darrow enters the courtroom in
the midst of the Pennsylvania Coal Miners
case, discussing the abuses of the industry,
such as child labour and terrible working
conditions. When he wins this case, he
comes home to an unhappy marriage and
him and Jessie divorce. (He later falls in
love with and marries Ruby, ‘a newspaper
woman.’)
He defends Bill Haywood in the Idaho
murder case, and we see many of his in
court arguments. He seems to expect
to loose the case because of the jury’s
personal politics but comes away with a
unanimous “not guilty” verdict.
Darrow explains his reluctance to take on
the McNamara case and gives details of
their alleged crime. During his preparation
for the case he struggles with the public
expectation and private truth of the case,
and eventually enters negotiations for
a plea bargain. The first half ends with
Darrow leaving the courtroom to face
a frustrated and angry crowd of labor /
McNamara supporters who feel he has
betrayed them with a guilty plea.
The Old Vic Teaching Resources
8
Act II
The setting remains the same
as Act I.
As part of the backlash of the McNamara
case, Darrow finds himself on trial accused
of bribery. He hints at how difficult this part
of his life was, but proves his innocence
with a powerful and evocative closing
statement whilst representing himself.
Darrow remembers Dr Ossian Sweet, and as
in previous cases, argues the accusation of
murder made against him is based solely on
racial prejudice. He discusses racial tension
at the time and challenges members of the
jury to question their own beliefs.
After the bribery trial, Darrow struggles
to find work. An old apprentice offers him
an opportunity and after many months he
begins to work as a lawyer again.
Throughout the play he reflects on his life,
including his achievements in his work
and the journey in his personal life. He is
particularly proud of his wok saving men
from the death penalty.
He represents a black man, Isaac Bond,
who is unfairly accused of murder with
no hard evidence linking him to the crime.
Darrow argues this is an accusation purely
based on prejudice, and he is frustrated
and disappointed when Bond is given
a life sentence, although he is saved
from hanging.
Finally Darrow discusses his most notorious
case, the murder of Bobby Franks by
two older boys Leopold and Loeb. The
play finishes with his address to the jury,
appealing for mercy and understanding for
all humankind.
He mentions some of his other cases and
also his other activities in lecturing and
debating. He also discusses some of his
personal philosophy and beliefs.
He introduces the Scopes “Monkey Trial”
which challenged the law banning the
teaching of evolution in Tennessee. He
interrogates the prosecuting lawyer about
fundamentalist Christian beliefs, and shows
his distaste for this form of religion.
The Old Vic Teaching Resources
9
THEMES
Equality
Darrow had a very clear sense of equality
and injustice in the world, and strove to
rebalance society by speaking for ‘the poor,
for the weak, for the weary, for that long
line of men who in darkness and despair
have borne the labors of the human race’.
Darrow represented many people who
were disadvantaged in his society, because
of their wealth, education, ethnicity or
nationality. He seemed to feel it was his duty
to help those less fortunate than him, to the
point that on several occasions he worked
for free when his clients couldn’t afford to
pay him. Many of the equalities he fought for
were included in the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights. However this declaration was
only made in 1948, a decade after Darrow’s
death which goes some way to show how
progressive his ideas were at the time.
Conversation starter
How much has the social
situation changed in the last
100 years? Would Darrow still be
fighting similar cases if he was
alive today?
Criminality
Darrow felt very clearly that crime was a
result of social and economic circumstances.
‘There is no such thing as crime as the word
is generally understood. If every man and
woman and child had a chance to make a
decent, honest living there would be no jails
and no lawyers and no courts’.
He strongly believed that the legal system
did very little to prevent crimes taking
place. He felt it was more effective to make
changes which improved the lives and
opportunities of ordinary Americans rather
than to improve prisons and laws.
Capital Punishment
Darrow inherited his father’s aversion to
the death penalty, and fought to save
others from it throughout his life. During
the time he was working as a lawyer, the
death penalty was a common sentence
for murderers and much of the population
felt this was a fitting punishment. Darrow
disagreed, and saw the death penalty
in a very different light, feeling that
transformative justice was much more
successful than retributive (an eye for an
eye mentality). “I never hesitated to defend
a man accused of murder, if only to prevent
a second murder, by the state”. In America
the death penalty has become much less
commonly used, however it is still used as a
punishment today.
The Old Vic Teaching Resources
Conversation starter
Do you agree with
Darrow’s description of crime
and what causes it? How does
this view relate to crimes such as
the one committed by Leopold
and Loeb?
Conversation starter
How would you feel
about defending a murderer
in court? Would you be able
to fight their cause? Do you
agree or disagree with Darrow’s
statement that the death
penalty is murder?
10
HOLDING OUT FOR A HERO
Courageous, just and magnetically charismatic. Joe Spurgeon discusses
where Clarence Darrow fits among the long list of literary heroes, both
fictional and biographical, that have shaped the development of our world.
As a lawyer, Clarence Darrow made a living from championing
the underdog, for speaking up against the ‘haves’ and
defending the ‘have not’s. He took on the corporate machine
and defied popular opinion at great personal risk. More often
than not, he won; with his landmark cases becoming pivotal in
the development of American law. It’s no wonder he’s widely
revered in his homeland and no surprise he provided such a
captivating and heroic figure upon which David W Rintels based
his play.
‘I am not bound to believe them right in order to take their
case,’ Darrow says during his closing remarks in one divisive
trial, ‘And you are not bound to believe them right in order
to find them guilty. But if this jury should make it harder for
a man to be a rebel, you would be doing the most you could
for the damnation of the human race.’ In these few words
alone, Clarence Darrow hints at the implicit complexity
of practising law, whilst revealing some of his rare gifts: a
powerful, passionate intellect, a deeply entrenched morality
and an undoubted gift for ‘the performance’. Indeed, many of
Darrow’s monologues are irresistibly quotable.
It is perhaps this combination that marks Darrow out as a
true, radical hero, though he exhibits plenty of admirable
behaviours during his long career. At times, he shows wit,
warmth, kindness and contrariness; at others, more familiar
heroic traits like courage, idealism and self-sacrifice. This
sense of modern heroism echoes throughout literature across
the centuries, originated by the Greeks as an archetype, The
Hero, immediately recognisable and relatable to an audience.
There are numerous examples since.
very muscular, very base kind. How does Darrow’s display of
courage differ?
Then there are the risk-takers. Those who, like Darrow, gave
something up for the greater good. The German industrialist
Oskar Schindler (immortalised in Thomas Keneally’s book,
Schindler’s Ark and by Liam Neeson in Spielberg’s film version,
Schindler’s List) stood against the might of Nazi Germany to
save 1,200 Jews from the Holocaust by secreting them in his
enamelware factories.
And just why does charisma so often get overlooked as
one of the most potent traits in the hero’s armoury? The
wit and sheer lyricism of Prince Hamlet, Ignatius J Reilly (A
Confederacy of Dunces) and Holden Caulfield (The Catcher in
the Rye) were integral to their tales. Onstage or on the page,
Darrow has charisma in spades.
So where might Darrow rank in this impressive list? Could we
ever conceive of the Ultimate Hero? For as much as we love to
hold aloft the chosen few, all too swiftly it seems, we just can’t
wait to see our heroes fall. Arguably then, perhaps, perfection
lies in imperfection. Heroes (usually) are human. Even Darrow
carries a contradiction or two. He’s a committed workaholic
yet neglectful husband; a thunderous orator yet reluctant
socialiser; unerringly selfless yet steadfastly proud, ‘one
hundred and two men I have defended have faced the death
penalty and none have hanged’.
His apparent fallibility – scholars and biographers still debate
his tacit compliance in the 1912 bribery conspiracy that nearly
bankrupted Darrow and ended his career – gives him a flaw; a
Darrow’s casual disdain for the ‘frozen and adamant’ legal
chink; a vulnerability. A sense he is, despite a towering wit and
profession reminds us of another well-known civil rights hero, canyon-deep intelligence, one of us. And perhaps that is what
albeit a fictional one, in the lawyer Atticus Finch from Harper
really marks him out. He’s just a man, a gifted one granted,
Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. In championing the voice of a black simply trying to do the best he can.
man facing down a vicious kangaroo court in America’s racially
divided Deep South, Finch, like Darrow, risks much in giving a
voice to a minority. Darrow’s belief in ‘doing the right thing’
could also be said of The Crucible’s John Proctor or Far from
the Madding Crowd’s Gabriel Oak, touchstones for traditional
and tragic heroism, who both exhibit an (almost) unbreakable
code of ethics and end up suffering for it.
Conversation starter
Do you think there is a universal definition of ‘a hero’?
At a more fundamental level, the heart-on-sleeve courage of
Are the behaviours, actions and attitudes of Clarence
little Lyra Belacqua from Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials
Darrow typical of heroism in both life and literature?
is at times shattering as she embarks on her quest for
Who are your heroes, both fictional and real?
enlightenment in a dark world. Treasure Island’s Jim Hawkins,
another youthful hero, develops his own exuberant brand of
pluckiness to save the day when surrounded by those that
should supposedly know better. Even gruff old Beowulf from
the ancient English poem shows courage of a sort, albeit a
The Old Vic Teaching Resources
11
RE-PRESENTING REAL LIFE
One of the most absorbing and inspiring things about the
play Clarence Darrow is that we know he was a real person,
and the events in the play actually took place. The use of
characters based on historical figures in theatre is by no
means a new phenomenon, writers such as Aeschylus,
Shakespeare and Schiller all used real historical figures as
their protagonists in dramatised works.
Another related form is ‘verbatim’ or ‘documentary’ theatre
which tends to refer to the origins of the text spoken. The
words of real people are taken from interviews with a theatre
maker, or existing records such as a court transcript, for
example The Colour of Justice which restaged the public
inquiry into the police investigation of Stephen Lawrence’s
murder. The transcripts are then edited or arranged to create
a dramatic presentation. Clarence Darrow is actually a mix of
a biographical play and a verbatim play as it uses actual court
records in some places, and imagined scenes based on facts
about his life in others.
These kinds of play offer us a glimpse of someone else’s
life, an experience which is heightened due to the fact that
we know the action we are watching is a recreation of real
life. But how far can we trust the re-presentation of an
individual’s life or actions, particularly if they are not able to
endorse or reject it?
As audiences, we tend to trust and expect that we are being
told the truth. However, when watching these performances
it is useful to remember that whoever the writer is, they
will inevitably have an attitude or bias towards the subject
matter, particularly as the subject matter chosen is often
about an important person or event. In many ways this is an
area where theatre and journalism overlap and the theatre
maker must adhere to some sort of ethical code if their work
is to be taken seriously.
Another issue for the theatre maker is deciding what
to include. If they have a whole lifetime, or months of
transcripts to distil down into a few hours of speech, what
criteria do they use to choose material? Moments of drama?
Highlights? Well-known events? A writer will want to ensure
the play is dramatic and interesting to watch, but does that
mean the final play can be an honest representation of what
it’s aiming to present?
In the case of Clarence Darrow it seems clear that the writer
has great admiration for Darrow and wants to re-present him
to the audience as an accomplished, successful man. The
decision to format the play as a retrospective means that we
lose much of the struggle that Darrow went through as he
looks back on his life with nostalgia. Conversely in The Colour
of Justice the aim of the writer is to expose the institutional
racism and injustice which was apparent in the police
investigation into Lawrence’s murder. As such it’s likely
that from hundreds of hours of material, the most extreme
examples were chosen to be staged as part of the play. It’s
impossible to make a play without bias, so it’s important that
theatre makers and audiences are aware of them.
Having said all of this, documentary and biographical
theatre gives the audience a window into a life or an event
that we may never have seen. It can be a powerful tool for
democracy and shine a light on important issues, as well as
being an engaging and entertaining form to watch.
Playwright David Hare felt that watching The Colour of Justice
enhanced his own understanding ‘as it laid before a live
audience all the subtleties and intricacies of British racism,
all its forms and graduations with a clarity which I have never
seen emulated by television, documentary or newspaper’.
Many people may not have known all the achievements in
Clarence Darrow’s life without having seen the performance
at The Old Vic, in particular some of his powerful speeches in
court which don’t quite have the same effect on the page as
they do when being spoken out loud.
Verbatim and biographical theatre provokes all kinds of
questions about truth, integrity, reality and fiction. It offers
a different form for presenting existing material and in many
cases might be the most effective way to present it. Clearly,
when we attempt to put ‘real life’ on stage, it’s very difficult
to resist having an opinion about it.
Conversation starter
How would you feel if someone made a biographical play
about your life, or a friend or family member? Would you
want to see it? How would you feel if you weren’t consulted?
The Old Vic Teaching Resources
12
KEVIN SPACEY:
WHY I CHOSE TO PLAY
CLARENCE DARROW
I first came across the play Clarence Darrow when I was in high
school. The one-man show written by David W Rintels made its
Broadway premiere at the Helen Hayes Theatre in 1974, directed
by the great John Houseman and starring Henry Fonda.
It is now 40 years later and I have come to the decision to
tackle Rintels’ play myself. Although it is a daunting part, I
have many reasons for taking it on.
The real Clarence Darrow, whom the play is based on, was a
unique and courageous man at the turn of the last century.
He was a lawyer who steadfastly accepted cases nobody else
would take, fighting on behalf of the underdog and standing
up for labor unions as well as being a staunch opponent of the
death penalty during a career which spanned over 40 years.
Through his dignity, intelligence and logic he often managed
to convince judges and jurors to change their view, shift their
prejudice and opt for a humane punishment on behalf of those
he defended.
Darrow’s life has inspired several adaptations, both films and
plays, and he has been portrayed by a few of my favourite
actors before me, so I feel I am in good company; Henry
Fonda, of course, played Darrow when the play debuted;
Orson Welles played Darrow in Compulsion, a film based on
the infamous Leopold and Loeb murder trial; Spencer Tracy,
with his brilliant performance in Stanley Kramer’s classic film,
Inherit the Wind, captured Darrow’s passion and commitment
like no one else.
I have myself had the chance to explore aspects of Darrow’s
life before now. In 1991, I made a television film for PBS called
Darrow, directed by my current House of Cards colleague,
John Coles. In the film I portrayed three decades of Darrow’s
life, until the age of 70. We put a lot of effort into making the
ageing process look as convincing as possible, so as not to
detract from the narrative.
People often ask me what my favourite film to have worked
on is. I usually brush these questions aside, trying not to play
favourites, by replying: ‘I hope I haven’t made it yet.’ If pressed
on the point, however, I would have to say that filming Darrow,
with my amazing co-star Chris Cooper, remains one of the
best experiences I’ve had on a project.
I was recently given the opportunity to step into Darrow’s
shoes a second time by staging Rintels’ play at The Old Vic.
Directed by Trevor Nunn, our 2009 theatrical production
of Inherit the Wind remains a seminal moment, so why
Kevin Spacey
have I chosen to portray him a third time? I jumped at the
opportunity of tackling this character again, as I continue
to find his rich, sympathetic personality and fertile mind
intriguing, even though by now he is a character that I
have come to know very well. I also feel the play is uplifting
– an examination of the best in all of us. This is especially
significant when so many of the things we observe and are
confronted with in this world highlight the worst of humanity.
Getting up on my beloved Old Vic stage in our 10th
anniversary season was also an important factor for me. I
moved to London 11 years ago and taking on a play that I feel
very close to just seems like a fitting way to mark this decade.
The play’s shorter run also allows me to work around my
shooting schedule for the third season of House of Cards.
The added challenges of never having performed a one-man
show before, or ever having performed in-the-round for that
matter, were very appealing to me.
And you know I love a challenge, so here I go!
First published on www.kevinspacey.com for the initial run of
the play in 2014.
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BEHIND THE SCENES
An interview with Liz Moon, Marketing Executive at The Old Vic
What does your job involve?
I work with the rest of the marketing team to make the
campaigns happen, to sell seats so we don’t have any
empty spaces in the theatre when the shows are on.
That involves lots of different things like social media,
advertising, video trailers.
What different kinds of marketing do you use at The Old Vic?
Traditional marketing tends to be print based, so things like
adverts in newspapers or posters on the underground which
we do quite often, and we also do posters on railways stations
coming into London. We sometimes make radio adverts,
although we tend to use these more for musicals than plays.
We work with pretty much everybody in the theatre. The
production team give us the show to sell; the stage crew let us
know which seats are available and whether there are sightline
issues which is really important when we are pricing tickets;
we work with box office team on things like customer services
and selling tickets; we work with the development team and
help send out communications about their events. I don’t
think there’s a department that we don’t work with really!
New media includes things like social media, which is
sometimes paid for and sometimes not. We also do big
animated adverts, which are on websites rather than being
in a newspaper, and we can incorporate trailers into that
too. We have an amazing team of graphic designers who are
able to create animated adverts and people really engage
with those. With new media it can be easier to track how
effective it is because you can use code and follow someone’s
journey through to booking a ticket. Whereas with print media
you often don’t know whether it’s seeing an advert that’s
prompted them to buy a ticket, or something else. At The
Old Vic we use all of these methods in conjunction with one
another. It’s a fine alchemy to get them all working together
for each individual production.
What do you enjoy most about your job?
The team, all the people who work in the theatre make it so
enjoyable. The satisfaction of knowing I’m a small part of a
massive theatre that creates these incredible productions.
What were the key elements of the campaign for
Clarence Darrow?
This production is a returning production so we had to take
that into account. Sometimes that means you’ve exhausted
part of your audience, but lots of people want to see Kevin in
performance so it’s still been very popular. Last time the show
was on it was a really short run which meant some people
weren’t able to get ticket. This time we’re in a great position
as we’re bringing back a five-star show, and all those people
who missed it have another chance to see it.
What advice would you give to someone trying to market
their own show?
I presume if it’s a show you’ve made yourself the budget is
going to be pretty limited. People always say ‘do some social
media’ because that’s a free and easy way of promoting
things. A lot of times if you trade on favours that’s a great way
to promote something. What that means is if you can agree
to promote someone else’s show in exchange for them do the
same for yours that can work really well. They might have a list
of email subscribers that you could get in touch with, that can
be a really effective way of reaching people who are interested
in a similar type of show, or equally you can promote each
other on social media or by distributing each other’s flyers.
Reciprocal things like that are often really helpful. Getting the
name of your show out there as many ways and as many times
as possible so it sticks in people’s minds and hopefully they
buy a ticket!
When building a campaign for a show we would usually start
with the play and the author, but in this case neither of those
are particularly well known. However, Kevin Spacey is very
well known so that really helped in building the campaign and
promoting the show. Because it’s a returning production we
didn’t have to do a huge amount of advertising, but usually
there’s quite a big lead up of about 12 weeks to try and
build up our advance as much as possible (an advance is the
amount of money you’ve taken through ticket sales before the What advice would you give to anyone interested in starting a
show opens). So I suppose Clarence Darrow has been different career in marketing for theatre?
from some of our other shows, but they’re all quite different!
Getting work experience in a theatre is a really good way
to start. It’s easier said than done, but if you persevere you
How is theatre marketing different to marketing
will find something. There are quite a few paid internships
other products?
these days which are a great way to get experience and still
Each show is different, especially at The Old Vic which means be earning money at the same time. Other than that I think
you have to be quite adaptable. There is a kind of formula we it’s just important to be really enthusiastic and see as much
use, but it’s not like selling aftershave or a product like that
theatre as you can so you know the product that you want to
which stays the same, each product is distinct and we have a
market, that’s really important.
new one every few months.
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ACTIVITIES
Although Clarence Darrow isn’t quite a verbatim play, it uses lots of similar
techniques. Below are some ideas for practical activities you can do in your
own classroom, either using existing texts or creating your own.
Playing with verbatim theatre
Select a few short extracts from fictional
scripts and verbatim plays (see below for
suggestions) but don’t tell your students
which is which. Ask them to work on the
extracts in small groups for five minutes
and then present them back to the class.
Ask students to guess which are fictional
and which are verbatim. What are the
features which make them think the plays
are one or the other? Content? Style?
Language?
Use one or two of the verbatim extracts
and ask groups of students to rehearse
and present them back. How different
are the interpretations of the same
characters? What clues did they use in
the text to make their character choices?
Which representation feels the most
‘realistic’? Discuss the ethics of representing someone else’s story, either
as a writer or an actor.
Verbatim Plays
Break the group into pairs and ask each
pair to tell one another a true story
about themselves. It doesn’t have to
be anything exciting, and should be no
more than one minute long. If possible,
get them to make a recording on a
phone or camera. Each student should
study the other, working on creating
a representative character through
gestures, physical stance, expressions
and speech pattern. You could use
mirroring or shadowing exercises with the
whole class to support this further if they
are unconfident initially.
Finally ask both students to tell their own
and each other’s stories and see how
similar they end up!
The Colour of Justice
Richard Norton-Taylor
Tribunal play based on the transcripts of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry. Exploring
institutional racism and injustice.
My Name is Rachel Corrie
Alan Rickman & Katharine Viner
Based on the diaries and emails of an American activist who was killed in the Gaza strip
by an Israeli bulldozer.
Cruising
Alecky Blythe
The love lives of the elderly on cruise ships, based on personal interviews with the
writer. Touching and funny.
The Permanent Way
David Hare
The privatisation of British railways, based on first-hand accounts of passengers,
employees and government ministers.
Taking Care of Baby
Dennis Kelly
A genre-bending fictional play in the style of verbatim theatre about a young mother
convicted of the murder of her two infant children.
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MAKING VERBATIM THEATRE
Research
You first need to create some material to work with, so begin
by choosing a topic or an event as the source material. Ideally
you want to record interviews yourself rather than take them
off the news, so think of a local topic you could investigate.
For example, students could share opinions and stories about
bullying, or students could interview family members about their
first relationship, or what school was like when they attended.
The best verbatim theatre happens in the present tense as much
as possible, so if you can interview people about a current event
the performance of the interviews will be much more engaging.
Interviews
Before you start interviewing people, make sure you discuss
some ground rules of interviewing, such as making sure
the interviewee knows what the interview might be used
for, only using material the interviewee agrees to, asking
open questions, understanding not everyone will want to be
interviewed. Most smartphones have applications that can be
used as voice recorders, or you can use a dictaphone.
You may need to interview a few people before you get the
material you want. When deciding who to interview, think about
friends or relatives who are interesting characters, who are unlike
other people being interviewed, or who have a good story to tell.
It’s important you get some plot and facts in the interviews which
can mean asking fairly boring questions – where they are, what
they’re doing, who they’re waiting for etc. Those things are the
cement and will help keep the story together.
Creating the play
Before you start to transcribe any of the material, it’s worth
listening to everyone’s favourite bits so you all have a sense
of the interviewees and content you have. Discuss common
threads in the interviews, do many people talk about similar
subjects? Are there any dramatic moments or interesting
stories? What do you see as the purpose for telling this story,
as a group what are you trying to open a discussion about?
How can you make sure your story is representative of all the
opinions you’ve heard?
The final stage is to put it all together. Think about it in the same
way as any narrative, you need a beginning, middle and an end.
There should be a point of climax, but also quieter moments.
Play around with timeframes and the order people speak in, and
make sure you try things out practically. This is the best way to
make sure you have an engaging text. You may still decide to
make more cuts, or to bring old material back, just go with what
works best.
Once all of these elements are clear, you may need to take
several weeks to transcribe the material you’ve chosen. All
the subjects will have spoken naturally, so make sure their
dialogue includes all the ums, pauses, slang, regionalisms,
repeated words, and other speech mannerisms that happen
in conversation. Keep hold of the recordings too, your actors
might want to listen to them in the future.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books
Weinburg, Arthur. ed. Attorney for the Damned: Clarence Darrow in the Courtroom (1957)
Jensen, Richard J. Clarence Darrow: The Creation of an American Myth (1992)
Stone, Irving. Clarence Darrow: For the Defense (1941)
Hochmuth, Kathryn. ed. A History and Criticism of American Public Address (1955)
Canton, Ursula. Biographical Theatre: Re-Presenting Real People (2011)
Hammond, Will. & Steward, Dan. ed. Verbatim Verbatim: Contemporary Documentary
Theatre (2008)
Darrow, Clarence. The Story of My Life (1932)
Websites
www.americanrhetoric.com
www.britannica.com
www.biography.com
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