True Story

Fiction as the fabric of reality

Multidisciplinary artists Satya Bhabha and Jonathan Bonnici use the power of fiction to create a space of common ground in a world where truth is increasingly contested. On a bare stage and surrounded by spectators, the two performers spin an irresistible series of stories, creating a flexible and porous world of narrative that also absorbs the entire reality of the performance: the audience present and the performance space. The viewer becomes both author and actor, the boundaries between narrator and listener, imagination and reality, truth and fiction are blurred. Performance is a dance on the thin line between reality and fiction. We usually think of stories as an escape from reality, but in True Story it turns out that the story is actually the fabric of reality.

Photo: Matjaž Rušt

Photo: Matjaž Rušt

Photo: Matjaž Rušt

Photo: Matjaž Rušt

Photo: Matjaž Rušt

Photo: Matjaž Rušt

Photo: Matjaž Rušt

True Story

2021
Storytelling performance • 50 min

Conceived and performed by — Jonathan Bonnici, Satya Bhabha
Performing strategy — Bojan Jablanovec
Light design — Špela Škulj
Body Work — Klavs Tarp
Translator — Morten Dalhoff
Administrator — Gry Raaby
Thanks — Anita Wach, Marie Louise Stentebjerg, Luke Cooper, Emilia Gasiorek, Amalie Bergstein Nielsen, Karin Bergman, Kai Merke, Naja Lee Jensen, Ida Elizabeth Larsen, Cecilie Ullerup Schmidt, Andreas Liebmann, Sara Gebran, Alma Toaspern, Brice Catherin, Grega Zorc, Katarina Stegnar, Kristina Aleksova, Olja Grubić, Sara Horžen, Naju Bhabha, Carter Batsell, David Herskovitz, Serena Bobowski, Benjamin Evans, Shahana Goswami, Zorawar Shukla, Indira Bonnici, Mattin Bonnici
Producer — Špela Trošt
Production: Via Negativa, Jonathan Bonnici, Satya Bhabha
Financial support — Danish Arts Council, Knud Højgaards Fund, Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia and City of Ljubljana