Theater Preview: LIES (LAB Theater in Ybor City [Tampa], FL

LIES ALL AROUND US

Tampa, Florida’s LAB Theater Project is taking to the stage live (yes, live) with the world premiere of Jerry Slaff’s award-winning play Lies, running November 5-22, 2020 at 812 E Henderson Avenue in Ybor City, with both limited in-house seating and live streaming options.

Lies, directed by Pete Clapsis, and starring Katherine Stenzel and William Statzer, explores the question whether one lie is enough to question all truths. Fresh out of law school, Benny (Statzer), an inexperienced public defender, is facing the case of his life — trying to win the parole of a notorious German World War II radio propagandist (Stenzel) who has a hard time telling the truth. Or does she? Are her truths all lies, or are her lies really the truth? And what happens when you can no longer tell the two apart? Set in 1950 but as timely as today’s Washington tweets, Lies is an allegory about lying in government, and a meditation on what truth actually is.

“If 2020 could be summed up in one word, Lies would have my vote,” says Clapsis, the play’s director. “Slaff’s words spoke to me when I first read the play. Coupled with the mission of LAB and the opportunity to help bring this to life in a completely collaborative atmosphere (albeit a masked, Zoomcentric atmosphere) I was hooked.”

Slaff explains, “All of us lie, not just politicians and presidents, every day, and I wanted to investigate the bigger question of how people can lie with seeming impunity, how they can openly tell the most outrageous lies, and think they can get away with it.”

photo courtesy LAB Theater

Lies
LAB Theater Project
812 E Henderson Avenue, Ybor City (Tampa), FL
Thurs-Sat at 8; Sun at 3
plays November 5-22, 2020
limited in-house seating and streaming
for tickets ($28), visit Lies
for more info, visit  LAB Theater Project