Tonight I’m Gonna Be The New Me

Made In China

We tell stories to make sense of our lives. We fictionalise our experiences, package them and present them to others as our truth, all without thinking. Our relationships come with their own origin myths and cautionary tales. 

Truth and fiction, like lovers, intertwine in Made In China’s latest production. Presented somewhere in between the worlds of play and live-art, styles clash for control of the narrative between Latowicki’s performance and Cowbury’s text. 

Those with experience of creating as a couple will find their own stories within the production’s layers, but this does always feels like a fictionalised version of their relationship. We never truly feel like we’re peering voyeuristically in to their lives; this argument has been on tour for a while now.

Why do we care about this couple then? Latowicki struggles in her acts of physical endurance, her “dances”, but we never actually fear for her safety. Cowbury too is safe. He has written his own heroic death scene, but we know that it’s a fiction. He watches it performed every night. The piece moves from one narrative voice to another constantly shifting and searching for it’s authenticity. 

Conversely, the production finds its truth in the fiction. As Latowicki movingly delivers her partner’s eulogy; the eulogy for the man sitting in the tech box, we finally see her truth. Her true pain, her true fear of the mortality of the man she loves.

In Made In China’s interesting experiment on authorship, we’re affirmed that sometimes, stories can be a lot more true than real life.