SPIEGEL

This play is a lie.

A wedding is being celebrated. Everything is festive. Registrar, bride, groom. Everything as it should be.
But a short time later it becomes clear: this wedding is just a façade. We are in a state where no play can be performed without first being approved by a "Commission for Culture and Order". The wedding is just a cover for a clandestine theater performance. The young author Adem has written a play. Čelik, the official and registrar of this wedding, decides whether to perform it or ban it. Mei, his assistant, watches every word. The disillusioned author Bax joins them. His propagandistic plays are celebrated throughout the country. Only once was he brave - now he knows the price that art costs when it doesn't lie. A dangerous game unfolds between these characters. What is art - statement or camouflage? Does art have to be true or is it enough if it feels credible? And at what point does theater itself become a lie because it obeys the rules in order to survive?
Scenes begin, are interrupted, restarted. Roles, positions of power and realities shift. What begins as a play becomes a test for everyone involved - including the audience.

Born in Scotland in 1981, author Sam Holcroft is one of the most precise voices in contemporary British drama. Her work explores human instinct, conformity and the balance of power. Spiegel is a political thriller about censorship and freedom of expression.