It was the end of the last day of rehearsals for Lanciatore and we were all at the stage where we were glad to get it out of the room and in front of an audience. It's a strange demilitarized zone; a sense of impotence, a frenetic silence which endures until the crew get the performance space ready for the final technical and dress rehearsals.
Martin McSharry
Rawlife Artistic Director
It was in this moment as our minds searched for distractions that my co-director Patrick J O Reilly chatted to me about a new play he wanted to develop called 'Here We Lie'. I was immediately captivated by the idea and his enthusiastic vision for the theme, story and characters. It was prophetic, bear in mind that at this stage Trump was not even a candidate and was probably enjoying some relieving R&R in a Moscow hotel meanwhile the Euro Sceptics were locked away in a Westminster basement writing catchy slogans. We had yet to be exposed to the new lexicon of alternative facts and fake news but Patrick knew, as I'm sure we all do, that the human condition contained the propensity for deception and misdirection long, long, before.
Those of you familiar with our previous productions will attest that Rawlife doesn't have a predefined style per se, rather Rawlife is an attitude, a way of talking about the world we inhabit and we were absolutely convinced that this was a play that Rawlife had to do and do immediately. We put the idea to the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and with the support of Drama and Dance Officer Gilly Campbell and Debbie Young we received the funding to turn Patrick's vision into what you see tonight.
Patrick J O Reilly
Writer & Director
I would also like to thank Patrick for not only writing the script but for also directing it (no mean feat), I would also like to thank Rawlife's new company manager Jacqueline O'Hagan for all her hard work in the past few months making sure the production ran smoothly and of course our wonderful cast a and crew have been brilliant. Once again the Jimmy Fay and the wonderfully gracious Lyric team were amazing in supporting the production. You may notice quite a lot of shopping trolleys in tonight's set and... no we didn't rob them from the supermarket carpark, well we might have had but thanks to the fantastic generosity of Peter Campbell in Sainsbury's in Forestside, we didn't have to.
Unlike film or TV which can be rehearsed, filmed, edited and sent down a telephone line to anywhere in the world, theatre is not finished until the final ingredient is added; the audience. There is no performance until there is an audience to perform it to and we are profoundly grateful to each of you for coming here today to support us and hopefully we can return the favour and entertain you!
Martin McSharry
Artistic Director,
Rawlife Theatre Company
“Writer Patrick J O’Reilly has extensive writing experience with an innovative and fresh style of writing, add to this the talented cast and Here We Lie promises to be a terrific theatre production. We are delighted to support Rawlife Theatre Company also with this tour which enables new audiences to experience new writing, bringing great art within the reach of everyone.”
Ready for Some Shopping?
She was going to tell the truth … eventually, but when the lie fuelled the village gossip and morphed into an alternative fact, a catastrophic sequence of events was set in motion.
Following on from last year’s hugely successful ‘As the Tide Ebbs’, Rawlife Theatre company have teamed up with writer Patrick J. O'Reilly to bring you ‘Here We Lie’, a dark and physical comedy that takes an unconventional look into our post- truth world of fake news, alternative facts with hilarious and terrifying results.
Enjoy...
What's Next...
The team at Rawlife are already busy planning next season's programme of theatre. 2017-2018 promises to be pretty special as we focus on Generation Z, on young post-millennials adults and how they make sense of their world, which they are in the process of discovering. We hope through the medium of theatre to investigate, learn, and add what is discovered to the debate and to the tradition of artists responding society’s questions.
It has and will continue to be a priority of Rawlife to develop professional and challenging arts in and from our communities, many of whom have little opportunity for their voices to be heard. If we claim to leave in a democratic community then that democracy should provide an accessible platform for all its diverse voices to be heard. Over the next 12 months, through community engagement and entertaining theatre Rawlife will continue to provide such a platform.