Truthmachine invites audiences into an intimate and unsettling theatrical experience at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, blending performance, technology and social experiment.
Created by Australian company Counterpilot, the show places twelve audience members inside an interrogation room where one volunteer agrees to undergo a live lie detector test. Connected to a custom-built polygraph, they are asked a series of personal questions while their physiological responses are tracked in real time.
The rest of the audience becomes the jury, tasked with deciding whether the subject is telling the truth. As the interrogation unfolds, lighting and sound respond to biometric data, transforming the participant’s inner reactions into a shared sensory environment.
Alongside the live experiment, Truthmachine explores the cultural fascination with lie detectors, examining their history, reliability and the human desire to uncover hidden truths. It also raises broader questions about honesty, perception and the limits of certainty in a world where truth can feel increasingly elusive.
Interactive, immersive and unpredictable, the experience encourages audiences to reflect on their own relationship with truth, leaving them to question what they have witnessed and what they believe.
Truthmachine runs at C ARTS | C venues from 7 – 30 August at Various Times. Tickets are on sale hereÂ
