When I first read Peter Shaffer’s “White Liars,” it was immediately obvious that
the main idea of the play was to show, through the rare and complicated interaction
between Sophie Tom and Frank, that lies have negative consequences that affect
oneself and others. It was also obvious that this is especially the case when the lies are
fueled by a selfish desire. When I re-read the play, I realized that my attention was
always drawn to the fact that all the characters seemed to want different things, and that
that’s what drove each character to somehow lie. Sophie desires to be successful, of
upper class, and praised for being ‘important,’ that’s why she lies about being a
Baroness of the Holy Roman Empire, and refuses to accept that she doesn’t come from
a distinctive family, and that she’s a complete fake who joined the business only to
avoid selling products in a market. Frank’s desire to have Tom for himself, is what
drives him to go to Sophie and lie to her, about wanting him to stay away from Sue
because he loves her, to get her to help. Tom’s desire to feel wanted and praised,
drives him to, in a sense, lie about his whole childhood through his shrugs, because
that’s what makes him desirable to both Frank and Sue. All three characters clearly
struggle with their lies, and the way they affect their lives, throughout the course of the
play. Because all of the intense moments of the play revolve around desire and lies, I,
along with my two other co-directors, came up with the following as the main idea for
the “White Liars:”
Those who are blinded by desire
lose sight of the truth
This is a powerful idea because all three characters have a desire that is so
strong that it makes them lie to the point where their own lies become reality to them,
until another character pulls them back into reality. This specifically happens when
Sophie refuses to accept that Tom is a victim, because even if Frank and Sue did that,
he didn’t stop them, because their lies made him more attractive and desirable and he
liked that. As well, Tom fires back by ridiculing her about being in the wrong business,
and really not being able to see anything at all- even when he leaves her room for good,
he leaves her with the comment that she really is in the wrong business, and that leaves
her frazzled because she feels like he’s not telling her something (which I believe is the
part about him and Frank having a thing). Furthermore, when Frank runs after Tom,
he’s speechless in terms of having a resolution for their conflict, because part of him
wants Tom, but it seems that he wants the Tom he has constructed, not the real Tom.
By the end of the play, all three characters come to realize that their lies affected them,
and others around them a lot more than they intended them to.
The idea that lies can reach a point of destruction is so powerful and that’s
something that Peter Shaffer acknowledges himself when he talks about the reason he
likes to write about relevant topics. In an article written about Shaffer’s change in
themes, it is stated that in his early work, he focused on themes, such as adolescence,
domestic issues, lying, desire, self-image, etc. that were relatable to the audience
reading and watching his work. All of the issues were also explicitly expressed as an
issue between two living humans, not just an internal conflict1. This is specifically
important to the “White Liars,” because, while each character’s lies affect him or herself
1
Hinden, Michael, “Trying to Like Shaffer”. Comparative Drama. Retrieved from JSTOR.
the most, it does definitely affect others around them, specifically because the desire of
one character is in conflict with the desire of another. I find it extremely important that
Shaffer uses the conflict between two people to express that the actions we make, more
often than not, directly affects others. As well, the idea that small lies, driven by a desire
or aspiration, can, and will most likely, grow and grow until there’s no stopping their
destruction. With this, there’s also this idea that our own habits of lying make it difficult
for us to grasp the truth from others. Sophie has many of these moments during her
dialogue with Tom, when she refuses to accept that he is telling the truth, and that
Frank was lying. I think that’s important because she attributes Franks lying to the fact
that he was jealous of Tom because he love Sue, when in reality it’s unclear at the end
of the play if Frank does love Sue or not. Yet, Sophie made the decision to help him
with his plan because he convinced her that he was desperately trying to find a way to
get Tom away from Sue because he couldn’t bear losing her.
I believe that it will be very interesting to play with the different parts in the play
where we, as directors, can arise suspicion about the lies that are being told, and the
true motifs behind the character’s actions. Also, it will be interesting to play with the
different body language and movement, and tones that can affect the way the audience
ends up feeling about each specific character. Answering questions like: do we want the
audience to feel bad for Tom at the end? Should they dislike Frank because he did lie
and manipulate? Should the audience feel bad for Sophie at the end of her monologue,
because she comes to terms with her reality? Will be both difficult but interesting to
work out. We’ll need to dig into why we feel differently about each character, even
though we know they all lied about something. Is it because we see Tom as very self-
centered, and therefore we believe he doesn’t deserve our pity? Or do we initially not
hate Frank even when we find out he lied, because we know he did it out of love,
whether it be for Sue or for Tom? These are all questions that I continue to ask myself
when I re-read the play, and they are questions that I’m looking forward to answering as
the rehearsal process begins.