One Big Lie

Instrumentation: clarinet, violin, viola, piano, and musical cast
Duration: 21 Songs

Program Notes

In this musical epic spanning centuries—from the ancient world to our near future—Lu-Lu the God of Lies is banished from the celestial realm and makes her way among humans to plot revolution against her fellow gods and their abuse of power. Meanwhile a young woman sets out to rescue her sister from the lustful god who has abducted her.

This musical fable pits gods against mortals in a search for ultimate truth that takes us from the ancient world to a future we’re all too familiar with.  Traversing time from a theatricalized ancient world through the industrial age to a time “just a little bit in the future,” One Big Lie follows two sisters and a brother whose dilemmas repeat in each age as they struggle to discover who’s really holding the cards.  With a rebel God of Lies and a singing oracle who turns into a 20’s reporter, One Big Lie is a romp that turns abruptly serious as our heroes are forced to stand trial for “anti-patriotic acts.

Commissioned and produced by Crowded Fire Theater Company with Playwrights Foundation, San Francisco 2005. Workshopped at Bay Area Playwrights Festival (as All the Truth in the World) and as part of the New Dramatists Working Partners Program funded by Arielle Tepper Productions.