This is a show about Lying

This is a show about Lying is a playful work that unpicks what we mean by success, validation and ‘playing the game’.

Originally created as a five-person indoor live work, This is a show about Lying has shifted, alongside most things during Covid-19, into the online realm.

Presented as a series of false artefacts, the work lends itself to the scrolling nature of social media and ways in which traces of us appear online.

The archive replaces the performance and becomes the work itself, each artefact authenticating that This is a show about Lying did happen, and act as a witness to this.

Does the work not exist even though it is documented?

Likewise, did the work happen if it was not documented?

We read applications, timelines, reviews - all of a show that, we learn, in fact did not happen.

This is a show about Lying is a reflection, and satire, of the sector, and our wider experience of human beings ‘keeping up appearances’.

It offers an opportunity for us to experience the ‘behind the scenes’ of the work, but through the heightened lens of Lizzie’s lies, and gives space to reflect upon our own lies built into the fabric of our daily lives.

It is also a process of grieving for a show that did not happen, due to the disruptions we all experienced in 2020 and 2021.

It is about failure.

It is about expectations.

It is a performance of success.

Choreographer: Lizzie Klotz

Performers: Alex Rowland, Alys North, Charlie Dearnley, João Maio, Tilly Lee-Kronick

Dramaturg: Rosa Postlethwaite

Co-producer: Morag Iles

Artistic Advisors: Nathan Johnston, Tom Cassani

Sound Designer: Jack Burton

Designer: Bethany Wells

Photographer: Luke Waddington

Videographer: Adam Goodwin

Durational, 2021

This is a show about Lying is a Dance City commission, and was originally supported during the Research & Development phases by Northumberland Arts Development, Queen’s Hall Arts Centre, Circus Central, ARC Stockton and Kala Sangam, using public funding by Arts Council England.