The Lie

Performance, Amalgama Space, Athens 2021, with the support of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture.

With her new work “The Lie”, choreographer Maria Gorgia, through Amalgama, continues and further develops her research into the “holistic” model of expression—that is, the synthesis of movement, speech and object. In “The Lie”, the body is presented as being in a state of continuous self-restraint, and in many scenes as persistently stylized, impoverished and rigidly well-mannered, in its attempt to conceal the truth or to impersonate something else. The performers repeatedly transform into humanoid robots, exhibiting mechanistic behaviors shaped by the intense influence of social stereotypes. Essentially, no one truly communicates with anyone else—even during moments of group or individual psychotherapy. The only genuinely truthful expressions are those of illness and helplessness, death, birth, naive love, loneliness and narcissism. Yet real intention faintly emerges through the “cracks” of the body, creating a form of counterpoint—a contradiction or discontinuity between appearance and being. This tension highlights the deeper emotional expression of lying in major areas of life, such as interpersonal and professional relationships and social existence. In “The Lie”, the concept of lying is explored across a wide spectrum of relationships, as well as within the public sphere: politics, information, and the media. The choreographer dares to directly address contemporary reality, in which the “disease” of lying appears to have reached vast proportions in Western societies. As a result, people no longer trust almost anyone, and communication has, to a great extent, been fundamentally lost.As the well-known psychologist Robert Feldman concludes, people lie—and do so systematically—because it facilitates coexistence with others. Lying places them in a position of power, enabling them to achieve their goals at lower cost and in less time than if they were to tell the truth. Yet the body, through its unconscious movements, often seems to comment on the liar at the very moment the lie is being “performed.” Ultimately, “truth” resides only in the body. Concept / Choreography / Direction / Set Design / Dramaturgy: Maria Gorgia, 
Lighting Design: Periklis Mathiellis, Set and Costume Design: Giorgos Litzeris, Texts: Maria Gorgia and the performers, Music Curation: Stavros Apostolatos, Performers: Themis Andreoulaki, Maria Gorgia, Arianna Zarmakoupi, Giannis Stavropoulos, Speech Coaching: Angeliki Karystinou, Production Assistant: Vangelis Vogiatzis, Assistant Set Designer: Anthi Paraskevi Veloudogianni, Press & Communication: Maria Konstantopoulou, Photography: Elena Kanaki, Angeliki Svoronou.