Truth, Lies and Deception explores fragility and danger in three dark-humoured, often shocking stories, about hilarious, not perfect women, standing against patriarchy. Adult Themes.
As featured in Broadway World:
https://www.broadwayworld.com/france/article/Joanna-Pickerings-Trilogy-TRUTH-LIES-AND-DECEPTION-to-Premiere-in-Paris-20211202
Pickering's Trilogy: Truth, Lies and Deception will have it's Paris Premier at Le Pavé d"Orsay Theatre in the heart of Paris, directed by Chris Mack, Alessia Siniscalchi, and Pulchérie Gadmer starring Koël Purie Rinchet, Joanna Pickering, Robert Bradford, Eugenia Kuzmina, Julie Kalya, Manuel Sinor and Emmanuel Danon.
Cat and Mouse
Marcus Meekus is a Hollywood movie director. Jade is bussing tables having just appeared in her first acting role — a tampon advert. When their paths cross, Jade thinks her life will change forever. Both are in for a shock.
[TW//CW//sexual assault, specific, brief moment]
Sylvie and Sly
Sylvie and Sly tells the tale of an aging actress, who in denial about her tragic reality, decides to save a floundering career with the help of a devoted friend and social media.
Beach Break
Two young female friends go away to a holiday resort to escape problems at home. It’s only a matter of time before something terrible happens. Something that will have dark and explosive repercussions.
[TW//CW//references to sexual assault]
About the Playwright.
Joanna Pickering is an award nominated actress, writer, and activist. Joanna has written for stage with Primitive Grace Ensemble from 2018 to 2020. In 2020, she was accepted into The League of Professional Theatre Women and the International Center of Women Playwrights. She is now a member of NY and LA Times critically acclaimed Theater 69 in Hollywood and New York.
In 2020, ‘Pickering’s Three Plays’ showcased with star cast Dan Lauria (The Wonder Years, Broadway’s Lombardi) and Caroline Aaron (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’s) reading under the artistic director Christine Cirker (FAB women at The Barrow Group) and leading directors (Lorca Peress at MultiStages, Susan Izatt at The Actors Studio and Amanda Moresco, The Actors Gym) sponsored by The League of Professional Theatre Women (adapted for zoom in the pandemic). In 2021, Pickering joined the Next Stage press catalogue alongasdie Tony Award winning playwrights and her trilogy was published and released in print in 2020 worldwide.
Her full play ‘Beach Break’ made The Red List for the top-rated stage plays in 2020 and is awarded a full scholarship to adapt for screen as a mini-series with mentor, Kelly Edwards, Vice president of HBO talent development and programming. As a debut one-act play ‘Beach break’ was a top five finalist radio broadcast for HBO’s ITV 2018, and aired on British radio, Resonance FM, in 2018, after debuting at ‘The Deunde Series’ at the Bridge Theatre, New York.
Her debut film ‘Boardwalk’ screened at Anthology Film Archives, NYC in 2018. It was nominated for best film and best suspense thriller at NYC Web Fest 2019. Joanna has received scholarships for her plays and work from The Dramatist Institute, Margaret Atwood’s agent Phoebe Larmore with Rohm Literary Agency, as well as writing grants from the Dramatist Guild, The Actors Union, The Actors Fund, and Sundance. Nanking Road, her TV series, has been awarded marks of distinction from David Kirkpatrick (Touchstone, Disney’s ex-chief of production), and Jen Grisanti (NBC writers on the verge) with Rocaberti Writer’s Trust, is a Screencraft finalist, a Wescreenplay Diverse Voices finalist, as well as Joanna being a Screencraft Stage Play finalist and cinematic short story finalist.
Acting credits include small roles in Danny Boyle and Nick Moran’s ‘Creation Stories,’ to principal role in ‘Alice Fades Away’ with star cast, TV series regular in award winning TV series (pilot produced only) Street Smart, as well as independent films screening at The Whitney Museum, 2014, ‘Pelleas’ alongside Alice Eve (Star Trek) in The Incomplete History of Protest exhibition, and award-winning film ‘Four Keys’. Stage credits include performing Lady Macbeth and King Herod as well as Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues.
Joanna publishes creative writing and social political essays on diversity. She speaks on Women in Film panels, is jury president of NY2PARIS/NYIIF film festival, a 2019 advisory board member for The Chelsea Film Festival, and a participant speaker for UN Create2030. She has a Bachelor of Science degree in pure Mathematics. She is represented by 3 Arts Entertainment in LA/NY.
Koël Purie Rinchet (Actress, Producer)
Koël Purie Rinchet is amulti-award-winning Indian media personality, who trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London,has made her home in Paris and lives to tell stories, regardless of the medium. She has spent nearly two decades in front and behind the camera, performed on stage at every opportunity and used her pen to give expression to the rage and delight that fills her. Having worked and lived in Delhi, Mumbai, London, Toronto, Tokyo and Paris she has refined her skill of being a serial-outsider while masquerading as a well-connected insider. After speeding through University in the UK (where her time was fairly divided between acting and downing warm beers), she created and acted in a daily TV show called Aaj Ki Naari which dealt with the perks and perils of being a woman, for the National broadcaster of India with a reach of over 300 million households. It went on to become a rage, while also causing much outrage. She received daily adulation and threats in equal measure.
This was followed by a decade as an actor. Her lead film roles include the BAFTA winner Dirty War, the generation defining Bollywood film RockOn!!, the cult-classic Everybody Says I’m Fine and the edgy Road to Ladakh. She debuted on stage as Desdemona in Shakespeare’s Othello in Leicester Haymarket. Finally, she put her gift of the gab to good use and produced and hosted a top-rated celebrity chat show called On the Couch with Koël.
Somewhere, between leaving India and moving to Paris with her French husband and daughter, she made a pit stop in Tokyo for a few years, and somehow, got hired by the Japanese government to be their Tourism Ambassador.
Currently, anthropological observations and overt eavesdropping occupy most of her time as she shuttles, masked and sanitised, between Paris and Mumbai, to createTV content, produce theatre, and industriously finish her first novel, before it finishes her.
Audience feedback (Next Stage Press review page):
"Three one act plays that deliver on every level and absolutely shook us to the core!"
“The overall arc of these plays with regards to human behavior is absolutely masterful”
"Women behaving as badly as men with all the devastating consequences"
“Great social conscious work”
“The writing has fantastic moral ambiguity, the darkly comic interchanges power the stories, and the relationship forward”
"Writing is fierce, complex, nuanced, deep and honestly human, real and messy"
"Pickering expresses the duality of people and human nature elegantly. She is not afraid to work in the shadows."
"Hard-hitting plays. By turns funny, dark, absurd, sexy, and bold, they evince a subtle understanding of friendship and a host of other relationships"
"Tackling difficult female agenda bravely in work that is unafraid in it’s honest portrayal"
"Once in a decade or few comes a writer that breaks the rules of convention"
"A brave, modern day, 19th century anarchist, who throws a bomb into the audience and every conversation, leaving all sides to work out what happened. Few truths survive intact"
"What a ride this play is! I read it and couldn’t put it down. It’s packed with nuance and complexity."
"Incredible stories with incredible dynamics and feelings and relationships."
"Poignant, funny and captivating."
"As a story teller, Pickering's ability to grab the audience and not let them off the hook is masterful. You feel uncomfortable, unsettled, yet riveted as she leads the audience one way then the next with twists."
"Delving into the themes of feminism, sexism, attachment, manipulation through authentic female voices while also providing intriguing mystery"
"Beach Break is smashing in it’s end, and it is an astonishing work, because it lingers in your mind which means it’s literally unforgettable"
The plays have been licensed from Next Stage Press -- Read full reviews here:
https://nextstagepress.net/truth-lies-and-deception/
FULL PRODUCTION CREDITS:
Cat and Mouse
Jade -- Joanna Pickering
Marcus Meekus -- Robert Bradford
Harriet -- Koël Purie
Rosie -- Eugenia Kuzmina
News VO -- Chris Mack.
Directed by Chris Mack
Sylvie and Sly
Sylvie - Julia Kalya
Sly - Kester Lovelace
Removal Man - Thomas Hardy
Directed by Alessia Siniscalchi / Chris Mack
Assistant Director: Tori Johnson
Beach Break
Zurie -- Koël Purie Rinchet
Layla -- Joanna Pickering
Directed by Pulchérie Gadmer.
Understudy : Chloé Aloma
Artistic Directors -- Chris Mack, Christine Cirker, Joanna Pickering, Koel Purie Rinchet.
Producers -- Koel Purie Rinchet and Joanna Pickering
Executive Prodcuers -- Kevin Mahaney, Koël Purie Rinchet, Joanna Pickering.
Production/ Stage manager/ Directors Assistant -- Tori Johnson
With thanks for support from The International Center Of Female Playwrights, The league of Professional Theater Women, Honor Roll.
Licensing Gene Kato from Next Stage Press.
Original Art Noell Oszvald
The press:
https://www.broadwayworld.com/france/article/Joanna-Pickerings-Trilogy-TRUTH-LIES-AND-DECEPTION-to-Premiere-in-Paris-20211202
https://www.broadwayworld.com/industry/article/Playwright-Joanna-Pickering-Inks-A-Deal-With-Next-Stage-Press-20210723
https://cfrycentrestage.wordpress.com/2021/08/17/interview-joanna-pickering/
https://actu.fr/bretagne/saint-barthelemy_56207/saint-barthelemy-rencontre-avec-l-actrice-americaine-joanna-pickering_46339218.html
https://www.womenplaywrights.org/marquee/12158525
