- The microphone heights are set for each speaker’s height/angle, but when they swap between microphones, the microphones are never adjusted. These are not their stories, but they speak them regardless; their voices are heard, but one questions how accurately, or how closely they can speak for the experience itself.
- The actual speaker (or the one whose story is being told for them) of each story is much more gestural than the person who is speaking. They know this story personally and are emotionally driven to tell it; their body’s response only emphasizes how much more personal it is (or the lack of a response in the case of the speaker telling the story.)
- Additionally to 2, the speakers’ faces are more expressive if they are the bearer of the story than the speaker who is telling the story for them. The speaker telling the story usually has a calmer expression, while the speaker who actually experienced it appears often enraged or frustrated.
- Taking a breath before pausing and swapping microphones for the first time; wanting to say or being about to say each speaker’s story, including at the same time, but not getting the chance to do so themselves
- At 0:31 when telling the female speaker’s story, the male speaker gives a nervous look back towards the female speaker, silent, before continuing. Emphasis on the irony of speaking the line (“As a woman, having a boyfriend is a battle”) and knowing the story is not his to tell, but not saying anything and continuing anyways. Similar effect seen at the beginning, but more subtle
- “I would tell you to think before you speak but your mind has got to be bacteria infected / and any filter through that labyrinth of nothingness might be worse than no thought at all.” The male speaker whose story the lines are from is frustrated and expressive, but in this case, so is the female speaker; a sense of “actual understanding” and connection between the two speakers and empathy rather than senseless, empty empathy (seen from the woman described in the elevator story)
- “Never will I turn away an ally but when a man speaks on my behalf that only proves my point”: the line is from the female speaker and meant to be told by the male speaker, but interrupted halfway (“when a man speaks on my behalf”) so that the female speaker can speak for herself rather than be spoken for
- Each story only has a single distinct “character” besides the speaker in it (the mother, a single nonexistent man running faster than light, the cashier, etc.)
- “I have been asked “what makes you feel unsafe” and I struggle not to yell EVERYTHING”: female speaker again speaks the last word for emphasis when the male speaker is telling the story, but this time both say the word instead of interrupting; shared feeling/commonality between speakers’ stories, even though intended to be told from a specific angle/intersection
- Final individual stories each have a distinct character representative of the speaker telling the story for the actual speaker that experienced it (white woman in the elevator, man in room); translating in performance to each speaker telling the other’s story, and how their stories can be warped maliciously, even innocuously under misguided empathy
- Speakers both speak together at the end and speak the same lines, except for the lines specific to each speaker’s experience; again commonality in stories and experiences, but with slight differences based on the speaker’s experience
- “Lines crossed” then swapping back to intended microphones; “uncrossing” lines and inheriting actual voices, experiences, pain