We sat down for an exclusive interview with Rachel De Fontes and Peter Jeffries, writers and directors of Lie Club: two compulsive liars meet at a Liar’s Anonymous meeting.
This show runs from 7th October to 11th October at Playhouse East – Tickets here.
As co-writers, co-directors and the two performers, how do you settle a creative disagreement when nobody is left to act as referee?
It’s a process of being open to each other’s suggestions and willing to experiment when you have a different instinct. Most of the time you can feel which choice is the more suitable one in the playing of it. If it’s a deadlock then it’s a process of trying it out for a few shows and seeing what it does for the audience.
The play has a lot of layers and has different timelines too so we are forced to approach it very structurally. There’s a lot of cross referencing other moments to see if the new change doesn’t contradict multiple other moments in the play.
What made a Liars Anonymous meeting the ideal setting for a dark comedy about deceit?
It raises the stakes between the characters from the outset. The characters are both master manipulators seeking their next thrill through lying and have no interest in stopping. The Liars Anonymous group is where they both end up, looking to throw down the gauntlet for a new challenge.
It sets the stage for our two characters. Provides a setting for the audience where they know they have to be on their toes and to expect deception. Audiences love a satisfying twist and also the challenge of figuring one out. The Liars Anonymous group setting lets them know that they are in for an evening with two tricky customers. They wear it on their sleeve. There’s no pretense, which is counter intuitive.
How do you play two characters whose every statement the audience has reason to doubt?
With a delightful mischief.
With complete conviction in what they are pursuing. There’s so much lying and so many different layers of it. If it ever seems obvious that a character is lying, you can bet they are doing it on purpose for some other agenda that’s not obvious. There’s always truth, even within the lie. Even when they are lying, they are doing it for an objective and we, as actors, have to pursue that objective sincerely.
These characters are operating on so many levels, one of them being an awareness that the audience and the other character knows how capable they are at deceiving. So we play with that awareness. It’s fun, surprising, it keeps the audience guessing. And it builds as the story goes on. The schemes get more complex and the deception more layered.
What did a twice-extended Edinburgh run and a tour across London, Los Angeles, Orange County and New York teach you about how audiences respond to the play?
That the show can be appealing to many people for completely different reasons.
The play deals with a lot of philosophical and psychological themes about truth, identity and reality but we’re aware that to get strangers off the street to come and watch two people they don’t know in a show they’ve never heard of is a big ask. So our mantra has been to deliver the entertainment value first: the humour, tense drama and surprising twists. And for the deeper/darker themes to be bubbling underneath the surface and embedded within these aspects.
It’s got great rewatch value as well. It’s 80 minutes that move at lightning pace so people will come see it the first time and love it for its comedy, then see it again and get a buzz off of the psychological thriller aspects and the building blocks of the twists.
How do you keep a reality-twisting two-hander fresh night after night when its power depends on the audience never knowing what is true?
For us, this play has been the easiest piece to keep fresh because the characters are always operating on so many different levels that there’s endless elements to play with or re-interpret… the possibilities are so many. There are a few moments we try to pinpoint and ground as the play’s foundational truth or objective reality so that the audience has an anchor. But apart from that it’s a playground of opportunities for these two wicked characters. The audience also plays a role in the way a particular night feels, with their energy. Sometimes – they’re hooked into the humor and sometimes they’re deep into the drama.
And the nature of the characters’ relationship is competitive so that lends itself well to throwing your scene partner a curveball. We’ve both got to be on our toes because both of these characters are capable of anything.
What would you most like audiences to be turning over in their minds as they leave Playhouse East?
The play is a bit of a mindfuck.
We’ve always aimed for the ending to be ambiguous but satisfying. One that sparks debate of who was telling the truth out of the characters and when. Sometimes people think about reality, identity, the lies they tell themselves, people they know who exhibit some of the behaviours the characters have and the world we live in which is ripe with dishonesty and complexity.