Made in China’s We Hope You’re Happy (Why Would We Lie?) is a 50 minute snapshot of two lifelong friends, Jess and Chris, sharing a night in, while everyone else is out getting wasted and the world is falling apart. They are compulsive liars. They ask us to believe everything they say, but to dismiss anything that the other reveals. Jess is trapped, suspended on a platform above the ground with only an ice cooler of beer and her best friend for company.
Writer and co-deviser Tim Cowbury’s text is lyrically potent with a depth disguised in conversational tones. The characters appear to give in to a series of urges in which they seemingly confess some of their darker experiences of the world, plagued by natural disasters and terrorist attacks. We witness them discuss Haiti, 9/11, 7/7 and the Blitz, while they cover themselves in layers of flour, ketchup and water, as if they’d themselves crawled from the rubble of a destructive tragedy.
The show builds on the company’s previous production Stationary Excess, using what is fast becoming a Made in China trademark; music punctuating scenes with absurd dancing and the ingestion of food and drink at incredible speeds. David Bowie’s “Rebel Rebel” provides the recurring theme in which performers Jess Latowicki (co-deviser) and collaborator Chris Bailey dance an expression of happiness, which descends into a chaotic struggle to stay positive as the speed of the song increases throughout the piece. Their delivery is fast paced and witty; they both speak so genuinely that the audience engages completely with the tragic themes of their conversation.
Throughout the piece you can’t help but smile, at the revelation of what seem to be genuine experiences, to some bold bare-faced lies. Meanwhile, the production asks the question: Do we care? Have we gone past worrying and caring about terrorism and disasters that happen hundreds of miles away? A great, affordable piece of performance art presented by a very exciting and fresh company.
