AUDITORIUM

  • HOME

  • OUR STORY

  • FEATURES

  • REVIEWS

  • CONTACT

  • More

    Where Do Men Go to Grieve?

    June 3, 2019

    Autumn Approaches

    May 20, 2018

    The American Struggle

    May 13, 2018

    Now We'll Hear From the Opposition

    May 10, 2018

    A Family All at Sea

    April 20, 2018

    Hollywood and the Optimism of Disappointment

    April 7, 2018

    We Are the World

    April 3, 2018

    As the Crow Flies

    April 1, 2018

    Am I or Am I Not?

    March 28, 2018

    The Truth, or Something Beautiful

    March 27, 2018

    Please reload

    Recent Posts

    Autumn Approaches

    May 20, 2018

    The Truth, or Something Beautiful

    March 27, 2018

    Where Do Men Go to Grieve?

    June 3, 2019

    1/10
    Please reload

    Featured Posts

    Are We Living in a Post-Truth Society?

    August 12, 2016

    |

    Marni Appleton

     

     

    ✮✮✮✮ 1/2 

    Katie Bonna's All The Things I Lied About

    Edinburgh Festival Fringe | Edinburgh

     

     

    Why do we all strive for absolute truth, and like to think of ourselves as ‘honest’ people? Would the world really be a better place if we were all honest? This is what Katie Bonna covers in her TED talk. Except TED haven’t asked her to do one because you have to be ‘an expert or something’ and she isn’t… is she?

     

    The Fringe is full of people telling their own real-life stories, but very few writers give the personal a universal resonance the way Bonna does. The central story of the infidelities that broke her family apart is compelling and her own disclosures are disarmingly honest. It is her deconstruction of our obsession with truth and the way she applies that to issues in the public sphere, such as the rhetoric of Donald Trump and Brexit campaigning, that really makes this piece stand out. Bonna asks if we are now living in a “post-truth society”, and though the idea sounds horrific, might it be true? Alongside the exposing monologue performance in the round, the storytelling is jazzed up with a fun and inventive demonstration of how dissonance and confirmation bias work, making use of the audience and a range of props to show behaviour in the brain. 

     

    All The Things I Lied About is an expertly structured piece of writing, the performance engaging and self-assured and the content eye-opening. Given the extent to which dishonesty has affected Bonna personally, it is surprising yet pleasing to see her critical engagement with the subject win out over the emotional. She ends by acknowledging that total honesty is impossible, that lies are as essential to us as breathing. Although that doesn’t mean commitment isn’t possible. By re-jigging the distinction from lie/truth to instead considering the effects of our behaviour, Bonna shows us that it isn’t total honesty we need but empathy and perhaps a touch of Bonna’s own bravery.

     

     

     

    Tags:

    edinburgh

    Please reload

    adelaide

    aix

    alanayckbourn

    almeida

    amsterdam

    andrewupton

    anniebaker

    arcola

    arthurmiller

    augustwilson

    ayadakhtar

    barbican

    barneynorris

    basel

    beckett

    belvoirst

    benedictandrews

    berlin

    berlinerensemble

    brecht

    brighton

    broadway

    bush

    carylchurchill

    chekhov

    chichester

    copenhagen

    dance

    darlinghurst

    davidgreig

    davidhare

    davidives

    davidlindseyabaire

    davidmamet

    davidrabe

    deutschestheater

    donmarwarehouse

    dublin

    duncanmacmillan

    edinburgh

    endawalsh

    eomw

    eugeneoniell

    florianzeller

    globe

    guirgis

    hampstead

    ibsen

    ivovanhove

    jezbutterworth

    joepenhall

    johnford

    johnosborne

    johnpatrickshanley

    kafka

    liftfestival

    lisadamour

    london

    lorca