‘Shale Lies and Other Stories’ is a hybrid performance using sound, songs, music, interviews and documentary narrative. It was developed in two stages:
Firstly through researching fracking with activists in Preston and at Barton Moss in Salford, producing a performance piece, Shale Lies, which turned their recorded words into songs and cabaret. This was performed in New Mills in 2015.
Secondly, we were invited by the ‘El Sueno Existe’ Festival (in Machynlleth in North Wales) to extend the piece with an international perspective on energy exploitation, working with the Columbia Solidarity Campaign.
The piece has remained a ‘work in progress’ and has been used to develop our documentary performance style. Here is an edited excerpt: