Foreign performance
Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh / UK
Truth's a Dog Must to Kennel
dir. Tim Crouch
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 the Fool back to the future of the play that he left. Back to a world without moral leadership, or integrity; a world where wealth covers vice; where the poor are dehumanised; where the jokes fall flat; where live art has become the privilege of the few.
"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 is an adult take on the atomised world we live in now. "King Lear" meets stand-up meets the metaverse.
"I think this is the closest I can get to writing about the last two years - the loss of life, the wrecking of families, the abuse of power, the digital encroachment into live theatre, the decimation of our industry. It's been hard to reconnect with the idea of live performance and to re-establish my conviction in its future. Sorry if this sounds like a downer; it's very playful and there are jokes."
Tim Crouch
"...the precision and intensity of performance erupting, ever so gracefully, into a mastery of storytelling."
The Reviews Hub
"Using a VR headset and an empty stage, Tim Crouch puts his audience at one remove from the Shakespeare play to comment on the world and theatre itself. (...) It is as if we ourselves are at the turbulent centre of 'King Lear'. (...) a heady combination of chat, storytelling and purposely wobbly standup, contradicts his own thesis. Theatre has a way of reinventing itself and Truth's a Dog Must to Kennel, ironically, demonstrates the case."
The Guardian
"An emotive, filthy love letter to the almost-lost art of being in a room, together."
Financial Times
Tim Crouch is an Obie-award-winning writer and theatre-maker. His plays include "Superglue" (NT Connections); "Total Immediate Collective Imminent Terrestrial Salvation" (NTS and Royal Court); "Beginners" (Unicorn Theatre); "Adler and Gibb" (Royal Court and tour); "what happens to the hope at the end of the evening" (Almeida); "I, Cinna (the poet)" (RSC and Unicorn Theatre); "I, Malvolio" (Brighton Festival and tour); "The Author" (Royal Court and tour); "ENGLAND" - a play for galleries (Traverse Theatre, Fruitmarket Gallery and tour); "An Oak Tree" (Traverse Theatre and tour) and "My Arm" (Traverse Theatre and tour).
Directing credits include "House Mother Normal" (New Perspectives and Brighton Festival); "I Cinna (the poet)"; "The Taming of the Shrew" and "King Lear" (RSC); "PEAT" (Ark, Dublin); "Jeramee", "Hartleby and Ooglemore" and "Beginners" (Unicorn Theatre) and "The Complete Deaths" (Spymonkey). Tim created and co-wrote "Don't Forget the Driver", a six-part series for BBC 2 which won Best Comedy at the Venice TV awards, 2019.
The Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh is a leading producing theatre in Scotland and one of the United Kingdom's most prolific theatre companies, dedicated to making innovative, high-quality theatre that draws upon the brilliant talent in Scotland and beyond and develops award-winning work with partners across the globe. With Artistic Director David Greig, The Lyceum has continued to seek out new artistic partnerships, including casting 100 local citizens in the main stage production of "The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other" and collaborations with Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne, DOT Theatre, Istanbul, Bristol Old Vic, London Old Vic, Lyric Hammersmith, National Theatre of Scotland, Citizens Theatre, Scottish Dance Theatre, Stellar Quines, Lung Ha and Fuel.
Creators
Written by Tim Crouch
Co-directed by Karl James and Andy Smith
Music and Sound design by Pippa Murphy
Lighting design by Laura Hawkins
Creative Associates - Brian Ferguson and Adura Onashile
Production Manager - Craig Fleming
Lighting and Sound Operator - Joey Crouch
Stage Manager - Claire Williamson
Commissioned and produced by the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh
Cast
Tim Crouch
Première - August 2022, Lyceum Studio Theatre, Edinburgh Fringe Festival
Language - English with Polish surtitles
Spektakl 16+
Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh / UK
Truth's a Dog Must to Kennel
dir. Tim Crouch
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 the Fool back to the future of the play that he left. Back to a world without moral leadership, or integrity; a world where wealth covers vice; where the poor are dehumanised; where the jokes fall flat; where live art has become the privilege of the few.
"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 is an adult take on the atomised world we live in now. "King Lear" meets stand-up meets the metaverse.
"I think this is the closest I can get to writing about the last two years - the loss of life, the wrecking of families, the abuse of power, the digital encroachment into live theatre, the decimation of our industry. It's been hard to reconnect with the idea of live performance and to re-establish my conviction in its future. Sorry if this sounds like a downer; it's very playful and there are jokes."
Tim Crouch
"...the precision and intensity of performance erupting, ever so gracefully, into a mastery of storytelling."
The Reviews Hub
"Using a VR headset and an empty stage, Tim Crouch puts his audience at one remove from the Shakespeare play to comment on the world and theatre itself. (...) It is as if we ourselves are at the turbulent centre of 'King Lear'. (...) a heady combination of chat, storytelling and purposely wobbly standup, contradicts his own thesis. Theatre has a way of reinventing itself and Truth's a Dog Must to Kennel, ironically, demonstrates the case."
The Guardian
"An emotive, filthy love letter to the almost-lost art of being in a room, together."
Financial Times
Tim Crouch is an Obie-award-winning writer and theatre-maker. His plays include "Superglue" (NT Connections); "Total Immediate Collective Imminent Terrestrial Salvation" (NTS and Royal Court); "Beginners" (Unicorn Theatre); "Adler and Gibb" (Royal Court and tour); "what happens to the hope at the end of the evening" (Almeida); "I, Cinna (the poet)" (RSC and Unicorn Theatre); "I, Malvolio" (Brighton Festival and tour); "The Author" (Royal Court and tour); "ENGLAND" - a play for galleries (Traverse Theatre, Fruitmarket Gallery and tour); "An Oak Tree" (Traverse Theatre and tour) and "My Arm" (Traverse Theatre and tour).
Directing credits include "House Mother Normal" (New Perspectives and Brighton Festival); "I Cinna (the poet)"; "The Taming of the Shrew" and "King Lear" (RSC); "PEAT" (Ark, Dublin); "Jeramee", "Hartleby and Ooglemore" and "Beginners" (Unicorn Theatre) and "The Complete Deaths" (Spymonkey). Tim created and co-wrote "Don't Forget the Driver", a six-part series for BBC 2 which won Best Comedy at the Venice TV awards, 2019.
The Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh is a leading producing theatre in Scotland and one of the United Kingdom's most prolific theatre companies, dedicated to making innovative, high-quality theatre that draws upon the brilliant talent in Scotland and beyond and develops award-winning work with partners across the globe. With Artistic Director David Greig, The Lyceum has continued to seek out new artistic partnerships, including casting 100 local citizens in the main stage production of "The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other" and collaborations with Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne, DOT Theatre, Istanbul, Bristol Old Vic, London Old Vic, Lyric Hammersmith, National Theatre of Scotland, Citizens Theatre, Scottish Dance Theatre, Stellar Quines, Lung Ha and Fuel.
Creators
Written by Tim Crouch
Co-directed by Karl James and Andy Smith
Music and Sound design by Pippa Murphy
Lighting design by Laura Hawkins
Creative Associates - Brian Ferguson and Adura Onashile
Production Manager - Craig Fleming
Lighting and Sound Operator - Joey Crouch
Stage Manager - Claire Williamson
Commissioned and produced by the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh
Cast
Tim Crouch
Première - August 2022, Lyceum Studio Theatre, Edinburgh Fringe Festival
Language - English with Polish surtitles
Spektakl 16+
