£¥€$ (LIES) – Ontroerend Goed, Summerhall, Review

Submitted by Erin Roche on Wed, 23 Aug '17 4.25pm
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Rating (out of 5)
5
Show info
Venue
Company
Big in Belgium, Theatre Royal Plymouth, Vooruit, Richard Jordan Productions
Production
Alexander Devrient (director)
Running time
90mins

"A ship is safe in the harbor, but that is not what it is built for."

Heart-racing, politically biting, and immersive LIES is a crucible of deceit, thrill, and intrigue where you, the 1%, sit down at the casino that is the world economy.

Upon first taking your seat at the betting table, you, a bank, are greeted by your charming dealer, your guide to make your country (in our case, Freyacoast) a strong and booming economical force. These dealers become traders, auctioneers, advisors, flatterers extraordinaire --if you have the money to deserve it, that is. Despite a vague air of uncertainty, you grow strangely fond of your dealer, the guide and confidante through this global marketplace/blackjack playground.

With profits on the horizon, the market of Freyacoast is open and bets, ehhem investments, are placed all while the BPM of the background music increases with every raising of the stakes.
At the start, you modestly invest in materials, with high odds of a profitable investment in every hand. Sleepy lounge jazz plays in the background and the feeling in the air is pleasant, polite.

As the stack of chips pushed towards the dealer grows higher and the investments grow ever riskier, the air in the room grows more tense, more suspicious, as you look around at the other tables and at the financial scores accruing in the center. Will your economy fold under the gambles you continue to take? The music changes to a faster, 80s rock.

Profit loss and instability run rampant throughout the room, personalities emerge from the table, leaders make themselves known, mergers collide, bonds fall through, the anxiety is palpable as sinister, minor EDM pumps along with your heartbeat.

Implosion imminent, the room is silent. Betrayal, confusion, doubt, hope flow through the room as you see countries collapse, economies fail.

The profits you built are gone, but what you are left with is the hard cash you came in with with the queasy, unsettling feeling that you’ve just participated in a microcosm of reality.

Aug 23-27
18:30, 20:30
16+