King's Head Theatre - The Truth Teller Review

rating: 3

Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies! David Crook's play, The Truth Teller, attempts to examine just this: the lies we tell ourselves and each other. Is it possible to be completely honest all the time? Is it possible to turn a compulsive liar into an honest man or woman? Is it sometimes better to tell white lies so as to keep our relationships in tact? Our main character, Jonathan (Tom Radford) is the compulsive liar in question and is sent to a very expensive shrink, Shane (Gary Cady) , by his girlfriend Mary (Martha Barnett ) who has decided that he MUST be cured of his shoddy ways. Jonathan then finds himself in the hands of his new therapist who proudly quotes his favourite German philosopher Immanuel Kant proclaiming that €œa lie always harms another€. In fact, Jonathan ends up harming Mary one more time when after his therapy session he lies to her once again about how he was the fastest cured client Shane has ever had. She discovers this is yet another lie and he is sent back to the shrink. After a session of hypnosis he finally becomes the truth teller Mary always wanted and goes on a truth telling quest getting himself wrapped up in some crooked affairs which involve a comical shop owner, Sasrutha (Naveed Khan), who is in cahoots with some Russian gangsters. Mary is left discovering something all us humans can relate to: the truth hurts! As Crook points out in his programme notes, the theme of truth and lies has been tackled before in films and other plays. However, Crook's attempt at it is clever and certainly explores it more profoundly than Jim Carey's Liar Liar or Ricky Gervais' The Invention of Lying. The set is left quite minimalist changing from a flat to the therapist's office to an off licence shop in a matter of minutes. I sometimes felt the stereotypes of the characters are stretched a bit far and could be considered a bit over the top. However, the acting was strong and this ensemble was in full force for their penultimate performance on a drizzly Sunday matinee. The King's Head Theatre is one of the best pub theatres around. In fact, it was my first taste of the London Pub theatre scene when I moved here a few years ago. It remains one of my favourite pub theatres and I would recommend checking it out the next time your in North London. Check out what's on here: http://kingsheadtheatre.com/main.html BOX OFFICE 0207 478 0160