The Truthful

Theatre maker Lieselot Siddiki creates the eclectic all-round show The Truthful, the literal meaning of the Arabic surname Siddiki, after an enlightening journey across the United States. The Truthful departs from experiences with her Muslim-turned-Christian uncle Nasir Siddiki who became a notorious evangelical priest.  

Just like her previous show Up Your Ass (a co-creation with Nona Demey Gallagher), The Truthful also dives into truth-telling and the dark underbelly of the United States. Using dangerously realistic insights, partly chronicled from the mouth of her uncle, preacher Dr. Nasir Siddiki, the performance imagines what clusters as complex matter around truth, faith and megalomania.  

Starting from a merciless narrative drive, Siddiki followed her fascination with spirituality, with the appeal of conspiracy theories and with the concept of devotion as a phenomenon within politics and pop culture. She was looking for answers from her uncle and the evangelical community of the city of Tulsa and ended up in the rodeo community of the state of Oklahoma. In the performance, Siddiki aims to evoke the spiritual, instinctive energy of bull riders, as well as the kaleidoscope of truths her journey across the US has shown her. 

In collaboration with composer Elisabeth Klinck, sound and music are deployed as the sublime power to connect, dazzle and seduce people to join in an immersive experience that transcends spoken language or classical discourse and as such also physically touches the viewer. The anachronistic design, with ‘larger than life’ elements, will transform the cast (Bavo Buys, Inci Gül Civelekoğlu, Joeri Happel & Elisabeth Klinck) into hyper-aestheticised marginal characters and demigods.


In Dutch (with English surtitles)
Duration: TBA