written and performed by Tim Crouch
a Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh production
Saturday April 29, 8:00 pm
York St John University Creative Arts Centre
A new work by ‘one of the most important writers and theatre makers in the UK’ The Stage
Truth’s a Dog Must to Kennel opened at the Lyceum Theatre Studio, Edinburgh, during Fringe 2022. It won a Fringe First award and was invited to New York as part of Soho Playhouse’s Fringe Encore Festival.
The play confirms Crouch’s place as the country’s pre-eminent interrogator of form and liveness. It uses King Lear as a point of departure to explore the aftermath of the last three years: the loss of life, the wrecking of families, the abuse of power, the digital encroachment of live theatre and the decimation of our industry.
‘That’s the moment when I leave. The moment when the jokes fail us.’
—
Not here but in another place.
In another place the country is being torn apart.
Not in this place, remember, but in that other place the leader has lost control, people are being killed, someone is blinded.
But not here, you understand, not in this theatre here. Not this one.
Here, everything’s just fine. Everything’s hilarious.
—
The Fool leaves King Lear before the blinding. Before the killing starts. Before the ice-creams in the interval. In this new solo work, Tim Crouch draws on ideas of virtual reality to send him back to the future of the play he left. Back to a world laid waste by division and trauma; a world where the revolution will take place on a screen.
Truth’s a Dog Must to Kennel is a daringly unaccommodated piece of theatre that switches between scathingly funny stand-up and an audacious act of collective imagining. It’s a celebration of live performance and a skewering of the state we’re in now.
King Lear meets stand-up meets the metaverse.
Followed by a Q&A with Tim Crouch
This performance contains descriptions of violence and abuse.
Tickets £10 full price, £5 concessions
We want to make it possible for as many members of the Ukrainian community and other refugees and asylum seekers from across the world, in Yorkshire, to come and see Truth’s a Dog Must to Kennel.
If you cannot travel to see the show, (or if you can), please consider buying a Pass it On Ticket which we can offer to community members. You can buy these through the booking link.
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