The starting point for Living The Lie is a true story: after twenty years of pretending to be a doctor working for the World Health Organisation in Geneva, Jean-Claude Romand murdered his parents, wife and children and set fire to his house. He failed to kill himself and so was subsequently brought to trial and his story brought to light. As it has already been the subject of a book and two films, I felt free to move away from the facts and explore what interested me in what has become a sort of modern myth. The action takes place in the course of a single evening and the morning after as the tension reaches a paroxysm and becomes unbearable but which in the play is relieved by dark comedy. My character has invented himself a career in advertising, trying desperately to keep up appearances in a society obsessed with image. His deeply dysfunctional marriage is intertwined with that of another, apparently more “normal” couple. But how normal is “normal”? What separates the sane from the insane? How deep are the cracks in the façade of normality? How different are we the audience from the characters on stage?
Extract:
Evening. Jules, Ben, Jenny and Carol come out of the house.
JULES A bubble?
BEN A bubble, yes. Brilliant, isn’t it?
JENNY Jules… That was very nice, Carol.
JULES What? I didn’t say anything.
JENNY I’ve got nothing against frozen food, I’m all for it. It’s lovely here.
BEN For an advertising agency? It says it all.
Pause
JENNY No, really. Beautiful weather too. We never even see the sun at our place… All what?
BEN No but, a bubble, what does it bring to mind?
Pause
JULES Soap.
BEN Exactly! Soap, washing powder, that’s our roots. That’s where it all started.
Pause
JULES So what?
BEN But not only that. Bubbles mean champagne, parties, luxury!
JENNY That’s true. Where’s Julian gone? Has he gone up to his room? Must be boring for him.
BEN They’re beautiful, fragile, ephemeral – just like life…
JENNY He seems a nice boy. Doesn’t have much to say, but he seems nice…
BEN And then, think of comic strips. Bubbles are for speech, language, thought.
JULES Schlak kerpow…
JENNY Takes after his mother…
BEN What is a bubble? It’s a transparent protective film. And what’s inside it?
JENNY Nothing.
BEN Yes well, there’s air. Oxygen.
JENNY Life.
BEN Exactly.
JENNY We should have brought the girls. Would have been more fun for Julian.
JULES So according to you advertising is life?
BEN Well, it’s my life anyway. And it’s the same for Giorgio.
JENNY Do you know him well?
BEN I gave him the title for his book.
JULES “Lying for a living”?
BEN And I had my say for the new firm too.
JENNY You told him to leave? But he was doing so well.
BEN Of course. But it was stifling us. We were stuck in a rut of preconceptions. Brian could sell fridges to Eskimos but when it comes to striking out….
JENNY Brian Goldman?
BEN Goldman, yes. He’s nobody’s fool but he just lacks that little something extra…
JENNY You call them all by their Christian names…
BEN That little something that Giorgio’s got that separates genius from mere mortals…
JULES What about you?
BEN Me?
JULES Have you got that little something extra?
JENNY Jules…
BEN Giorgio’s the one that’s got that.
JULES You’re not a genius then?
BEN I should have thought you were aware of that by now.
JULES Oh, I don’t know, I got everything else wrong, so….
Pause
JENNY But what do you have against Goldman?
BEN We don’t have anything against him. He is what he is. He’s not an artist.
JULES And Bruni is?
JENNY What’s he got that the others haven’t?
BEN I consider Giorgio to be the greatest artist of our times.
JULES We get the artists we deserve.
BEN The others are artisans. Craftsmen. Giorgio is a visionary. Who said advertising should be only about selling? Why should everything be reduced to a message? Giorgio said to me one day, he said, “Benjamin…”
JENNY He calls you Benjamin?
BEN He said, “Listen.”
JENNY Like the bunny…
BEN “We’ve worked for the market economy, we’ve done our bit for the politicians, it’s time to break free from the yoke of utilitarianism. We have to shrug off the shackles of salesmanship. No brand, no message! Communication for communication’s sake!” He’s brilliant. With his accent it’s even better.
JULES But what does it mean?
BEN It means we won’t be working for anyone any more. We won’t be trying to get anything across. We just do it because we do it. That’s all there is to it.
Pause
JENNY But how will that make you any money?
BEN It won’t. That’s the beauty of it. It’s a luxury we can afford. Don’t worry, Giorgio’s got his head screwed on. He’s keeping his shares in the old agency.
JENNY But you’ll be working in this…
JULES Bubble?
BEN That’s where the future lies, I’m convinced of it. Giorgio and I go back a long way. I trust him.
JULES Does he trust you?