Sarah Deller on Optimistic: Elizabeth Holmes

Using real world material including newly released trial exhibits, interviews, and text messages from medical fraudster Elizabeth Holmes, this verbatim devised play explores the mind of the woman who falsely claimed her technology would revolutionise medicine. Defrauding investors of hundreds of millions of dollars and even using her disastrous technology on real patients, Holmes claimed that a single drop of blood could be used for up to 800 blood tests – and people believed her. Following the story of the rise and fall of Holmes’ success, writer and performer Sarah Deller aims to portray the true life of Elizabeth Holmes, adopting her distinctive mannerisms and famously affected voice. We spoke to Sarah Deller about the show just before she heads up to Edinburgh.

Tell us a bit about your show

It’s a verbatim (ie word-for-word) play about the biotech CEO Elizabeth Holmes, who claimed she could run up to 800 blood tests on a single drop of blood. Spoiler alert: she couldn’t. She had an unbelievably impressive board of directors, she raised hundreds of millions from investors, she actually used her technology on real patients — but the technology didn’t work. Optimistic tells the “behind the scenes” story of this fraud by using Holmes’s text messages, interviews, emails, and notes on her phone. It’s mostly material from her trial, which means it wasn’t available when Bad Blood was written or The Inventor was made.

What interested you about Elizabeth Holmes, why explore her story in your show?

I was in the States visiting my friends Nick and Alice, and Alice asked me if I’d heard of Elizabeth Holmes. I said no, and the very first thing she said was, “She has this voice. You have to hear it.” I’m very interested in voices and have a lot of voice training, so even before I heard it I was setting myself the challenge of mimicking it. And then Alice pulled up the Ted Talk and I was like, oh my god, what is this. I wasn’t paying attention to what Holmes was saying at all; I was just trying to make sense of the voice. But then Alice began to tell me the story, and how real people used this faulty technology. It’s kind of hard to explain my really intense relationship with truth and honesty, and justice, but essentially, I respond very, very, very strongly to liars. I just have a very visceral response to liars and to injustice in all its forms. So I decided right then that I would make a show based on this woman. The combination of the unusual, affected voice and the thematic content was irresistible. That was three years ago. The more I’ve researched, the more bizarre and angering the story has become. But also, of course, the more human Holmes has become. I don’t think I could have made the play if Holmes was just a cartoonish villain, which I think she can appear to be, without her private text. I mean: she performed in this absurd voice. She wore a costume. She made it so easy to lampoon her or write her off as a psychopath. But there is tons of vulnerability in her character, and I’m drawn to that. It’s definitely been interesting to juggle my anger at this woman’s actions with my empathy for her really intense vulnerability and her low self esteem. So I came for the voice and stayed for the lies, the injustice, and Holmes’s vulnerability.

What made you choose to use verbatim as a style of theatre?

There are a few reasons. One is I’m fascinated by Holmes’s psychology and why she did what she did. So I wasn’t interested in creating a backstory and a fictionalized psychology for her: I wanted to see what was really in the evidence. It wouldn’t have satisfied my curiosity to write something new when I, as a person, just wanted to understand her thinking. Then there’s the fact this is a story about a liar. She succeeded, essentially, by false words that she passed off as true. As I mentioned, truth is a very important concept to me. It didn’t feel right to create more false words and pass them off to the audience as the story. I wanted Holmes’s real, private words to reveal and undo her. Of course, I still have a perspective and I have still crafted a story here. I selected material for inclusion and exclusion. But I approached this like I approach my academic work: study the material, examine the facts, see what emerges, then, out of the patterns I observe, create something. It felt intellectually and morally gross to write some monologue about some fake backstory, and then present that as an implicit justification for her actions or something. And, of course, the truth is stranger than fiction. I couldn’t have written anything as bananas as her sexting with Sunny over how American he is.

What is the biggest challenge of performing a solo show?

The challenge for me is definitely in the creating, not the performing. It’s lonely work and I procrastinate. A lot. This play improved hugely when I went back to Canada and worked with two mentors (Alex McLean of ZUPPA and Eric Rose of Ghost River Theatre). Actually, one thing we addressed was a classic solo performance challenge, which is what do you do when a scene really needs another character? Do you play both parts? After working in Canada we all agreed the stage felt too empty during some scenes, so now I occasionally play multiple parts. Then the challenge becomes: which character do you play in any given moment? When a solo actor plays multiple parts, the stage feels more full and dynamic than if they played only one, but unfortunately you lose some moments of reaction and moments when the character is listening but not speaking. I do think the mark of a great actor is their ability to listen and respond authentically, and the beauty of watching acting is witnessing a character thinking and listening, so it’s a bummer to lose those moments, but in this case the play as a whole is stronger for that choice.

Any tips for Fringe festival goers?

If there’s a show you know you want to see, book the tickets early. Last year I missed out seeing things because I assumed I’d be able to get tickets day of, or I didn’t realize when a run ended. At the same time, leave room in your schedule for spontaneity and for word-of-mouth recommendations. If you like a show, follow the artist on social media — they’ll likely shout out to similar plays.

Optimistic: Elizabeth Holmes is showing at Edinburgh Fringe Festival, at ZOO Southside, Studio, 4 – 27 Aug 2023 (not 10 & 17), 18.55 (19:55). Book tickets at: https://zoofestival.co.uk/programme/optimistic-elizabeth-holmes/