Lippy, Young Vic

‘Lippy’ , from young Dublin-based theatre company Dead Centre, must be something special. By the time it reaches the Young Vic in February, it will already have travelled from Dublin to Germany, New York, Edinburgh and Dublin again, gathering praise and awards everywhere, including 'Best Production of 2013'. We are particularly intrigued by the company’s unparalleled creative process; the performance is a collaboration between dancers, video artists, a playwright who appears onstage and a screenwriter ‘Cameo-Author’ 
It is unsurprising, therefore, that the show is about the process of creating art, of telling stories. It was inspired by the true story of four women, an aunt and three nieces, who barricaded themselves into their house in County Kildare, starving to death over forty days. But the show is shaped by a refusal to believe that this story is the actual truth or reality. Instead it foregrounds the ethical questions of re-telling someone else’s story, the urge to place ourselves in someone else’s skin.
And director Ben Kidd has hit on beautiful and extraordinary visual and theatrical means of exploring this theme; at one point mounds of shredded paper are blown all over the stage. If you like your theatre smart, surprising and thought-provoking, then don’t miss this show’s stopover in London.