‘The whole Truth about Lies’ by Nico and the Navigators at Radialsystem

The evening seems like a logical continuation, although the differences could hardly be greater. At the end of September, the independent theatre collective Nico and the Navigators sent Fabian Hinrichs to the Haus der Bundespressekonferenz as the leader of a populist party called the ‘Democratic Alliance’ and acted out the possible consequences of such a man's election victory. The lie as a tried and tested means of political communication already appeared there in all conceivable manifestations; in ‘The whole Truth about Lies’, an eclectic and ecstatic evening of music theatre, it takes centre stage - with a broad cultural-historical focus, but always in relation to the present.

That sounds abstract. In concrete terms, it is about the lies of images and the question of what authentic speech actually is or could be. What we see becomes implausible and self-contradictory in two fascinating ways: Firstly, the singing, dancing and acting ensemble uses an illusion technique with which the British inventor John Henry Pepper caused a sensation as early as 1862. A huge, semi-transparent mirror tilted at 45 degrees reflects what is happening on the floor of the stage in such a way that it looks as if it is standing or floating in the centre of the room. And secondly, Nicola Hümpel's production utilises the alienation effects made possible by the new image generators with artificial intelligence. They are also projected onto the mirror and appear as three-dimensional as holograms, even though they are not. 

In both cases, it is clear how the visual effect is created, it is a game with perfect information. And yet the impression is overwhelming: you believe him because you want to. The question of the nature of the lie can be experienced here as a problem of the relationship between sender and receiver. And as such it has been dealt with extensively in art, in wonderful pieces of music from Gioachino Rossini to John Lennon, from Georg Friedrich Händel to Leonard Cohen. They alternate fluently here, interspersed with dance choreographies and short play scenes in which everyday lies become a theme: in small talk, in the reunion of a separated couple, in a farewell speech at the grave or in the flaming speech of the demagogue. A clever, multi-layered evening that is well worth seeing.

Even the title "The Whole Truth About Lies" is dialectically composed: if we are dealing with lies – then where is the truth? Yet perhaps, in the interplay of different types of lies, shared patterns and even a collective understanding of deception can be extracted – and in that very analogy, a fragment of truth may emerge.

“I do not walk on clouds, but on solid ground” – this famous quote by the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein stands for a wisdom rooted in lived experience, not in lofty heights or stars. Happiness is not found at the top of a climbed ladder, but in the solid footing on the ground and in what we hold in our hands.

As part of the "DIGI MUSE – Festival for Music and Technological Innovation 2025", the music theatre production "The Whole Truth About Lies", a co-production by the German ensemble Nico and the Navigators and the Schwetzingen SWR Festival, recently celebrated its Asia premiere at the Shanghai Concert Hall. This work, which artistically integrates AI technologies, interprets Wittgenstein’s ideas through a striking theatrical form.

The stage design of this production is equally noteworthy. A one-way mirror wall spans the entire center of the stage from left to right, dividing the performance space into various zones. From the audience’s perspective, the performers appear to be in the same space – in reality, however, they are separated by the mirror wall and move within different, mutually blind dimensions.

The real bodies and their countless reflections on stage may look similar, but are fundamentally different. This set design itself points to a highly topical subject: the illusion of AI. Here, the aesthetic effect of artificial intelligence is not only made visible, but its limits and fractures are also exposed.

One of the truths about lies is this: lies often look or sound more beautiful than reality. Although the stage uses only simple props such as rolls of toilet paper, the images – thanks to live cameras integrated into the stage and AI-assisted projections – are transformed into aestheticized illusions on the mirror surface. A singer, dressed plainly in white, stands facing the audience and sings. Her partner drapes strands of toilet paper over her shoulders. But in the mirrored image, the AI transforms the scene: the paper becomes a traditional headdress and skirt ribbons – like a living oil painting from centuries past.

Another truth about lies: there will always be someone who believes them. While the transformation of paper into flowing fabric still appears as an obvious aesthetic enhancement, the scene that follows – featuring “Les oiseaux dans la charmille,” the so-called Doll Aria from Jacques Offenbach’s "The Tales of Hoffmann" – dives deeper into the production’s layers.

Aside from the AI-based mirror illusion, all other artistic effects on stage are created by human craft. One dancer outlines the shape of a house on the stage floor using toilet paper and then sits behind the mirror wall — in the projected reflection, it appears as if he is sitting by a window within that house. The dancer on the floor in front of the mirror — seemingly seated next to the house — and he act in separate dimensions, yet the mirror visibly connects them. The singer of the Doll Aria, who is in the same real space as the dancer (on the opposite side of the mirror), accompanies the scene with ukulele and vocals. For the audience, the dancer — who removes the house frame and repeatedly tries to break through the imaginary wall — now appears as the supposed ‘third figure’ in the triangle. But her attempts at connection are continually thwarted by the sound waves of the ukulele.

This scene remains ambiguous: who is telling the truth here, and who is lying? Though the three figures are separated by mirrors and move on different levels — generating an illusion — we, as spectators, are still inclined to trust our ‘guided gaze’.

Another truth about lies: it often seems that a single person can speak for many. In 1965, American singer Barry McGuire wrote the anti-war song “Eve of Destruction,” a harsh indictment of U.S. society at the time.

On stage, the drummer sings this song, dressed in an orange life vest. Simultaneously, his image appears on the mirror surface – and next to it, a second, AI-generated likeness also in an orange vest. As the song progresses, this face and details of the vest change continuously, revealing ever-new faces in the reflection. The impression arises that the singer is voicing the concerns of many. But the question remains: can a single person truly speak for many? Probably not.

Another truth about lies: lies are often flawed copies of the truth – but when these copies join forces, they can overpower the truth.

To the sound of Chopin’s Piano Sonata No. 2 “Grave; Doppio Movimento,” two men stand behind the mirror wall and enter into conflict. When Dancer A suddenly appears as a double in the reflection, this duplicate seems at first to support him. But the mirror image – confined to the mirror frame and without visible feet – remains a flawed copy. Shortly afterward, Dancer B’s double also appears.

Eventually, multiple flawed copies engage in an increasingly chaotic fight. In the end, it is the two real dancers themselves who collapse in exhaustion.

The musical structure of Chopin’s sonata – in which lyrical, dramatic, and contrapuntal elements artfully intertwine – is perfectly mirrored in this scene: the internal logic of music and visual composition merges into an impressive philosophical reflection on lies and truth. And it is precisely in this that the sophistication of the production lies.

The entire piece thrives on the contrast between grounded reality on stage and the mirror images, along with the imaginary spaces behind them. At first, the relationship between floor and reflection seems clear: a simple mirror image, at most reversed and with a second of delay. But gradually it becomes clear how multifaceted and manipulative this apparent mirror world can be.

Much of the projected imagery emerges from the performers’ floor-bound movements. So that their mirrored counterparts appear to effortlessly climb mountains, plunge into abysses, fly skyward, or float weightlessly through water, the dancers choreograph their bodies on the ground in often extremely twisted and physically demanding ways.

One might understand it this way: it often requires far more effort than visible to make something appear outwardly light and effortless – or put differently: truth is hard-won, while beautiful illusions masquerading as truth often come deceptively easy.

Music – particularly the lyrics, which range stylistically from classical and art song to pop – forms the dramaturgical backbone of the evening, shaping the emotional arc that unfolds in close connection with dance and movement.

After another piano sonata by Chopin – the famous “Funeral March” – an actor appears shirtless on stage, symbolizing the concept of lies. He moves fanatically and expansively like a cult leader, gathering followers who surrender to him in an orgiastic frenzy.

For the finale, accompanied by John Lennon’s Gimme Some Truth, another powerful stage image unfolds: the performers roll in one by one, singing, and lie down side by side as if in a giant bed – each with a pillow beneath their head – and tear off strips of toilet paper to form the word “LOVE.” At the same time, they crawl under a massive sheet, finding comfort and closeness with those beside them. At the final note of the song, eight performers tear the sheet away from the Liar-character, leaving him uncovered and isolated at the edge of the stage.

The musical theatre ensemble Nico and the Navigators performed at the Rococo Theatre at the end of the Schwetzingen Festival

A certain amount of confusion must have arisen in large parts of the audience right at the beginning when the Christian creed was recited unabridged. This was then captured in the last spoken text of ‘The whole Truth about Lies’, a kind of revue presented by the Berlin music theatre ensemble Nico and the Navigators at the end of this year's Schwetzingen SWR Festival in the Rococo Theatre, written by the ensemble itself: ‘I believe in lies / The almighty / The driving force of people on earth / And in progress / Their natural companion, our star. / Conceived through insatiable greed, / Born in the bloody battles, / Suffered under the constraints of truth, / Judged but never died, / Drawn down into the realm of good / Risen again and again from the good / Ascended into the future. / He sits at the right hand of the lie / Of the almighty mother; / And there he will remain / Transforming the living into the dead. / I believe in false promises / The unstoppable growth / Fellowship of the deceptive / Falsification of the truth / Slander of the good and eternal evil / Amen.’

This field of tension gave rise to a two-hour kaleidoscope of around twenty pieces of music from Handel to Chopin, Jacques Offenbach, Shostakovich, Ligeti and John Lennon, set for violin, trumpet, piano, electric guitar and percussion, in some cases enhanced by synthesiser and electronically alienated. This was accompanied by texts that take a rather pessimistic view of human behaviour and spectacular ballet interludes.

The stage design was based on an invention by John Henry Pepper from 1862, called ‘Pepper's Ghost’, in which a skilfully positioned, semi-transparent mirror makes activities performed while lying on the floor appear to float freely in space through reflection, while also allowing interaction with people positioned behind the mirror. This old illusion technique was given a contemporary twist with alienating video projections, whereby almost everything that took place on stage could also be seen as a video image.

The evening was characterised by the high artistic achievements, emotional resilience and unbridled enthusiasm of the entire ensemble, with which the concept of the ensemble director Nicola Hümpel, characterised by exuberant scenic imagination, was brought to the stage.

You could simply enjoy it, but of course it was also intended to stimulate thought and reflection, but it also gave rise to contradiction. For example, it is doubtful that thinking automatically leads to lying and that one should therefore withdraw to the senses. It should also be noted that the series ‘progress - lies - evil’ evoked in the creed quoted implies the highly questionable opposite ‘regression - truth - good’.

Of course, you can also ask about the relationship between lies and illusion or truth and reality, but then you simply have to call the end of the programme kitsch: To John Lennon's ‘Gimme some Truth’, the Berlin ensemble snuggled together under a large blanket and wrote the word ‘Love’ in capital letters across the scene.

Such nostalgic recourse to the romance of flower power and the legendary ‘bed-in’ of honeymooners John Lennon and Yoko Ono in an Amsterdam hotel in 1969 will certainly not solve the real problems of this world. It would have significantly increased the evening's impact if it had closed with the confession ‘I believe in lies...’. Did Nico and the Navigators lack the courage to do so?

Closing with the world premiere of the music theatre production ‘The whole Truth about Lies’

The Schwetzingen SWR Festival 2024 will conclude on Saturday, 25 May, with the world premiere of the new music theatre production by Nico and the Navigators: The whole Truth about Lies. Based on the seductive and disastrous fascination of falsehood, the ensemble searches for evidence of self-deception and heteronomy, white lies and fallacies in the dark depths of classical heritage as well as on the glittering surface of contemporary music. The direction and artistic direction of this exciting production is in the hands of Nicola Hümpel. A few tickets are still available.

In the four weeks from 26 April to 25 May, the Schwetzingen SWR Festival welcomed a total of more than 18,000 visitors to 47 top-class concerts, music theatre performances and events from the supporting programme under the motto ‘Da capo’. The occupancy rate for the paid events was over 91 per cent. The 2024 edition of the festival was the eighth and final season under the artistic direction of Heike Hoffmann.

Heike Hoffmann: ‘I am delighted that my last Schwetzingen season was also an artistic success and was extremely well received by the audience. Many thanks to the artists and all those who have contributed to this success with their great commitment and professionalism.’

The radio culture programme SWR Kultur accompanied the festival events in Schwetzingen with broadcasts and reports as well as concert broadcasts. All concerts were and are broadcast live from Schwetzingen Palace or with a time delay on SWR Kultur. This gives the festival an enormous and international reach. This year's concerts and music theatre productions will be broadcast on the radio until the summer, after which they will be available to listen to on www.SWRKultur.de. The performance of St Mary's Vespers from Worms Cathedral will be available on Arte Concert until 29 October 2024.

The Schwetzingen SWR Festival 2025 will take place from 2 to 31 May 2025 - then for the first time under the artistic direction of Cornelia Bend. As usual, the programme will be published at the end of 2024.