After an enlightening trip to the United States, theatremaker Lieselot Siddiki created the eclectic total-theatre production The Truthful, the title of which is the literal meaning of the Indonesian surname ‘Siddiki’. The show is based on her experiences with her Muslim-turned-Christian uncle, Nasir Siddiki, who went on to become a notorious evangelical preacher.
Like her earlier show, Up Your Ass (a co-creation with Nona Demey Gallagher), The Truthful digs into truth-seeking and the dark underbelly of the United States. Based on dangerously realistic insights, partly gleaned from her uncle, the show portrays the complexity of the subject matter revolving around truth, faith and megalomania.
Driven by a relentless compulsion for storytelling and led by her fascination with spirituality, the appeal of conspiracy theories, and the concept of devotion as a phenomenon in politics and pop culture, Siddiki looked for answers from her uncle and the evangelical community in the city of Tulsa, ending up in the rodeo scene in the state of Oklahoma. In her show, Siddiki aims to evoke the spiritual, instinctive energy of bull riders, as well as the kaleidoscope of truths that her trip through the United States brought to light.
Working with composer Elisabeth Klinck, Siddiki uses sound and music as a sublime means of connecting, dazzling, and seducing people into participating in an immersive experience that transcends spoken language or classical discourse, and as such also affects them physically. The anachronistic design, with larger-than-life elements, transforms the cast (Bavo Buys, Inci Gül Civelekoğlu, Joeri Happel and Elisabeth Klinck) into hyper-aestheticized minor figures and demigods.
This show was made in collaboration with the Toneelhuis Ateliers.
Each year with our Ateliers, we offer space, guidance and support for the creation of a theatre show to a number of theatremakers and/or theatre collectives. We do this in collaboration with other art organizations in the field, such as Kaaitheater, CAMPO, Kunstenwerkplaats, Hiros, VIERNULVIER, Les Halles de Schaarbeek and others. These are shows for the large stage that are programmed at Toneelhuis at a later date. The Truthful premiered on 14 May 2005 at CAMPO.
Each year with our Ateliers, we offer space, guidance and support for the creation of a theatre show to a number of theatremakers and/or theatre collectives. We do this in collaboration with other art organizations in the field, such as Kaaitheater, CAMPO, Kunstenwerkplaats, Hiros, VIERNULVIER, Les Halles de Schaarbeek and others. These are shows for the large stage that are programmed at Toneelhuis at a later date. The Truthful premiered on 14 May 2005 at CAMPO.
"Siddiki and her collective impressively manage to create an aesthetic in which criticism, clichés and camp intersect without lapsing into laziness or caricature."
"With this dreamy, ambiguous, more introspective work, Lieselot Siddiki steps across the border into an unspecified red state, where Christian-inspired conservatism sets the norms and values."
"It will be a total-theatre production, a paranoid, manic theatre concert with lots of music and crazy costumes. It’s about a family of lost souls who long for a greater truth. With the starting point being my uncle’s life – which I look at critically but with lots of understanding and fascination."
"Siddiki does not consider herself a preacher, yet she eels an affinity with what her uncle does in her approach to theatre. “I don’t have his talent for language, but somehow I’m always building churches or temples, in which people become absorbed in something that transcends them."
regie en vormgeving
- Lieselot Siddiki
muziekcompositie
- Elisabeth Klinck
performance
- Bavo Buys
- Inci Gül Civelekoğlu
- Joeri Happel
- Elisabeth Klinck
dramaturgie en coaching
- Laurens Aneca
ontwerp instrument
- Simon Lanz
geluidsontwerp, geluidsmix en muziekdramaturgie
- Oscar Claus
light design
- Anne Meeussen
costumes
- Frieda Degeyter
graphic design
- Joram De Cocker
spirituele coach
- Dr. Nasir Siddiki
gebeeldhouwde kostuums
- Lisette Sivard
scenography
- Eva Demulder
video
- Pol Heyvaert
production
- CAMPO
coproduction
- C-Mine cultuurcentrum Genk
- detheatermaker
- KVS
- Toneelhuis
- VIERNULVIER
with the support of
- Gouvernement
- deAuteurs
thanks to
- Wisdom Ministries
- Eva Demulder
