Even in our own memories, we edit, censor, rewrite, reinvent – sometimes entire years of our “true” lives are shifted to heighten certain experiences, to avoid others. And if so, then is the goal of art to capture the elusive truth, or to shake our very definition of what is true. Our goal, in taking this name, and forging this company, is to examine the very essence of what art might be in theatr
e or film, and how to use that art to evoke a series of possible truths. We want our audience to think, to feel, to shift to the edge of their seat and wonder. The approach
As a company we challenge the means of staging and stylizing theatrical texts. The purpose is to question and shift that truth, through the lovely little white lies and hidden truths, which our scripts, characters, choreography, and design elements encourage and require of us, as artists. Well written scripts beg us into their subtext, innuendoes, characters change gears, choreography ensnares us with its turns, and design fills us with scale, depth, tricks of light and shadow, to showcase the whole in an artistic splendour of possibilities. Within this, we ask ourselves often what is relevant and resonant in art today, in theatre and film. Our mandate in this journey is one of seeking, and working directly, dynamically, and without boundaries or fear. We want to capture the glory of all possibilities, which can live in a moment – no matter how subtle or resplendent, truthful or fabricated, that moment may be.
“I am large, I contain multitudes” Walt Whitman
We believe that through an investment into the visual and textual world of the play, our work will engage a new phase of theatrical creation and style. We take our influences from classical, contemporary and avant-garde fine arts, fashion, film, photography, theatre, music and dance, in order to appropriate and conceive a new means of art making, which resonates directly with established and amateur theatre goers. We seek out contemporary relevance in the work, and enact that upon the productions through this style of cross-cultural, multi-art influenced performance. Influences
We share a passion for the artistic eras of absurdism, grotesquerie, clown, existentialism, and imagistic theatre. We are inspired by the work of Tadeusz Kantor, Eugene Ionesco, Jean-Paul Sartre, amongst many others, though our influences are not limited to theatre makers. We also pay tribute to painters from Caravaggio to Beksinski, fashion designers from Channel to Alexander McQueen and Galliano, filmmakers such as Ophuls, Fellini, and Sokurov, photographers such as Saudek and Belmer, musicians ranging from Beethoven to Big Star, and dancers from Evelyn Hart to Louise LeCavalier. We pay tribute, but we move forward from there, asking the hard questions about how to best tell a story at this moment in our shared history and where to place the lens which will capture a truth, in all its permutations. Dernier Mot
art & lies productions wishes to heighten and humanize the audience connection and experience of the text, by creating precisely staged and lavish spectacles, rife with lush imagery, words, choreography, lighting and sound. Each design element will carry its own voice and role in the production, and not merely serve as dressing. Each gesture will move the story deeper into our comprehension of the chaotic and primal states of love, fear, madness, joy, and isolation enacted through our characters and stories, leading us into the ultimate quest for our art and lies. The work will be at once emotionally raw and real, and also beautifully staged and rapturous in its relationship between light/dark, stillness/movement, sound/silence.
