truetruestory is a joint project by three artists: composer Albertas Navickas, director Loreta Vaskova and set designer Simona Biekšaitė. It was provoked by Jorge Luis Borges’ phrase claiming that “invented morals are senseless” and developed having in mind Borges’ short story Emma Zunz as well as the personality of Valerie Solanas, a woman who attempted to kill Andy Warhol in 1968.
These thoughts served as inspiration for the story: a girl – whose father was wrongly accused of financial offence – learns about his death. How will she react and what will she choose, given that she knows the perpetrator of the fatal events? Prior to meeting him the girl herself creates ambiguous circumstances, entangling a random man into the process. Will she manage to break the moral principles?
truetruestory tells about the reflections of truth in the imagination of the main character and how they weave between the real and the illusionary. This dilemma has been accurately pointed out by an unknown Chinese philosopher: he had a dream that he was a butterfly and when he woke up in the morning he didn’t know anymore, whether he was a man who dreamt of being a butterfly, or whether he was a butterfly, dreaming it was a man.
On stage, truetruestory is a narrative for a woman and a man in three characters, in guitar, accordion and live electronics setting. Moments of high-pitched tingling silence, halting the action at critical situations, are followed by repetitions of minimalist rhythms, inspired by loops of electronic music. The singing incorporated in these pulsating rhythmic structures rarely extends beyond mezzo-piano; creating an impression of intimate talking it invites the viewers to assume the role of a biased witness of events.