Truthmachine: How Truthful Would You Be in a Room Full of Strangers?
★★★★☆
If you’re anything like me, you have watched a lot of celebrity lie detector tests with the certainty that if you were in the hot seat, you would be cool, calm, and adept at lying—not because you are untruthful, but because you are clever, and it seems nothing could be better evidence of this than outwitting a machine that claims to be able to prove when you are lying.
Truthmachine, Counterpilot’s first venture at the Edinburgh Fringe, allowed me to test this theory. Inside the Quaker Meeting House, in the heart of Old Town, audiences are lulled into an unassuming stupor as they wait for their slot to arrive. When we are finally led upstairs, it is into a dark room with a long table, each seat fitted with headphones, a microphone, and a dial to signal yes or no. The effect is chilling and instantaneous, and the room quiets as each member of the audience finally understands that in this performance, they are the actors onstage.
Image via Kate O'Sullivan
After a few warm-up questions, I was neurotically giggling with nerves, proving my prior confidence false. At only 30 minutes, Truthmachine is one of the shorter Fringe shows, but it’s one that proves the value of quality over quantity.
The show’s success might at first appear gimmicky, but its production quality quickly sweeps this assumption aside. Part social experiment, part play, the production is so adeptly maintained that I struggled to remember until the very end of the show that it had in fact been a precisely choreographed performance. The pacing and tension of the storytelling were so effective that, by the end of the performance, the hairs on my arms stood up. The effect of the audio production alongside the sparse visual media on this front must not be understated.
Image via Morgan Roberts
The premise of the show is simple: how truthful would you be in a room full of strangers? Whether or not you think the answer to that is easy, Truthmachine promises to test and delight.
Maybe I have a guilty conscience, but thus far Truthmachine has proven to be the scariest show I’ve seen at the Fringe this year.
Muna Mir
Cover image via Yaya Stempler
