Lying Dramaturgy: Beyond Borders @ Edfringe 2016

Lies. All Lies.

Laughing Horse @ Bar 50 (Venue 151)

Aug 4-19 11.00pm (Free for all)

A piece of quirky workshopped theatre. Through a mish-mash of styles, from a series of monologues to slam poetry and physical theatre, each moment weaves together a powerful performance that certainly packs a punch… and a good few laughs. As separate journeys unfold, raw, real human traits become exposed. A divorcee ramps up his online dating profile. A life-guru leads seminar attendees into sincerity. A liar confronts his truthful character on stage. A rapper in a world torn apart by institutionalised lies. A daughter in denial confesses to her shrink. And more.

What was the inspiration for this performance?

As part of our programme at East 15 Acting School we each developed and performed a self-penned monologue based on an existing character and text and exploring a theme we are enthusiastic about. We combined four of those monologues and realised we have a very strong connecting theme between them - lies.

Is theatre still a good space for the public discussion of ideas?

Very much so! Unfortunately it loses its status primarily to social media. Theatre is mostly expensive and seem archaic for the young generation. We believe theatre allows for a way of discussion not possible on any other platform, including the new ones preventing the crowd from going to the venues. Theatre allows for a live platform, a very direct and real connection that stands in opposition to the virtual connection proposed by films, social media, new media, etc.

How did you become interested in making performance?

One of our cast-members saw Phantom of the Opera in a personally low stage in her life and was so amazed by the world that was on stage, she immediately realised that was a world she wanted be a part of, and that was what she wanted to do in life.

Was your process typical of the way that you make a performance?

As we wrote earlier, the show came out of four pieces that we had already, and so it was actually a very unique and backwards-way of a process, as we had most of the show without having a show. Once we found a strong connection between the pieces we worked on consolidating it all into a show (adding introductory pieces and writing additional material to make it a complete show and to tie everything together).

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

We aim to make the audience question the necessity of lying. It sounds odd, as most of us think instinctively that lying is unnecessary and damaging but we bring pieces that challenge both ends of the spectre and hopefully make the audience question rather than getting an obvious answer to the nature of lying and its place in our world.

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?

We start the show by a stylistic piece pointing the audience towards several facts, statistics and physiological symptoms regarding lying to focus the audience's attention to our theme. We have several long pieces each raises a different facet of lying in our society. Most of the big pieces come right after an accompanying prelude that acts both as an introduction and as a stimulator for a moral struggle for the audience.

Additionally, to get the crowd thinking even before coming into our venue, we will be performing 20-minute pieces on the street-stages.

Performed by graduates of East 15 Acting School’s MA/MFA programme, the actors bring a mix of nationalities and global flavour to the stage, scrutinising a universal theme while navigating their way through an individual struggle with their inner selves.