Lie Low

Updated LIE LOW duckman banner graphic

Solas Nua presents the North American Premiere of

Lie Low 

Written by Ciara Elizabeth Smyth

Directed by Rex Daugherty

 

WHEN: Thursday, November 6 - Sunday, November 23 

Thursdays - Saturdays at 7:30pm / Saturday and Sunday at 2pm

WHERE: Atlas Performing Arts Center - Lab 2 (1333 H St NE, Washington, DC 20002)

PRICE: Pay What you Can - $45

***TICKETS ON SALE SOON*** 

 

After a home invasion, Faye hasn’t slept in twenty days. She’s fine, though! She really is! Living off Rice Krispies and adrenaline, she enlists her brother Naoise in an increasingly absurd attempt at exposure therapy. But Naoise has a hidden secret that’s about to surface. Lie Low is a dark comedy about trauma, the lies we tell ourselves, and the outrageous ways our brains work. Or don’t. 

Actors:

Megan Graves & Cody Nickell 

Creative Team: 

Robert Bowen Smith - Choreography  |  Gisela Estrada - Scenic Design  |  Kenny Neal - Sound Design  |  Alberto Segarra - Lighting Design  |  Logan Benson - Costume Design  |  Lorraine Ressegger-Slone - Fights/Intimacy Director  |  Isabel deCarvalho - Prop Design  |  Isabella Tapia - Stage Manager  |  Mekala Sridhar - Creative Producer

 

PRAISE FOR LIE LOW:

 

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ "a startling and brilliant new play’’ -Whats On Stage 

★ ★ ★ ★ "a riveting play that left me speechless" -Everything Theatre 

★ ★ ★ ★ "vital, astonishing theatre" -The Reviews Hub 

★ ★ ★ ★ "thought-provoking" -Theatre Weekly 

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ "This outstanding Irish play deserves to set Edinburgh Festival Fringe alight" -The Irish Times 

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ "Breathtakingly intense" -The Arts Desk 

★ ★ ★ ★ "Buckets of theatrical verve" -The Irish Independent 

★ ★ ★ ★ "Darkly comic, disorientating 70 minutes" -The Telegraph

 

ABOUT CIARA ELIZABETH SMITH

Ciara Elizabeth Smyth Headshot 2025

Ciara Elizabeth Smyth is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter from Dublin whose work has won praise for its dark humour and experimental approach to form. Her plays have been presented by the Abbey Theatre Dublin, the Lyric Theatre Belfast and the Traverse Theatre Edinburgh, the Royal Court London and The Irish Repertory Theater New York. Previously with Solas Nua, Irishtown (reading) and Sauce (reading).

Her 2023 play LIE LOW (Winner Best Theatre Script at the Zebbies 2023; First Finalist BBC Writersroom Popcorn Award; Nominee Irish Times Best New Play) has been translated into Italian, Turkish and Chinese, and is currently being adapted into an opera directed by award-winning director Tom Creed.In April 2025 her most recent play, IRI$HTOWN, starring Saoirse-Monica Jackson and Kate Burton, completed a sold-out off-Broadway run at Irish Rep in New York, earning multiple nominations and awards at the Origin 1st Irish Festival.

Ciara’s debut short film, SLAY + PREPARE, premiered at the Glasgow Short Film Festival 2024 and she is currently writing her debut feature film, THE CENTRE, which is supported by Short Circuit. 

Currently, Ciara is Playwright in Residence in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown 2025 and winner of Playwrights '73 Bursary Scheme 2025-26, on attachment to Traverse Theatre. Ciara is under commission with several television production companies and theatre companies across the UK and Ireland and is represented by Curtis Brown.

ABOUT THE CAST
Megan Graves actor headshot

Megan Graves (she/her) is delighted to return to Solas Nua after appearing in 2016's Wild Sky. Other DC credits include Round House Theatre: The Tempest, Arena Stage: The Great Society, The Little Foxes, Olney Theatre Center: Dance Nation, The Thanksgiving PlayOil (US premiere), Folger Theatre: Love's Labor's Lost, King John, The Second Shepherd's PlayA Midsummer Night's Dream, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company: Gloria, Studio Theatre: Translations, Mosaic Theatre Company: Marys Seacole (regional premiere). Megan is a proud company member of Only Make Believe, a non-profit arts organization that creates theatre with children in hospitals, care facilities, and special education settings. IG: @onlymakebelievedc


Cody nickell actor headshot

Cody Nickell is thrilled to make his Solas Nua debut with this wonderful team of artists. Most recently he was seen in the Lehman Trilogy at Gulfshore Playhouse. Other recent credits: Prayer for the French Republic at Theater J, The Winter’s Tale at the Folger Theater, and Ink at Round House Theatre (Helen Hayes nomination for Best Performance in a Lead Role). Regional credits: work at Shakespeare Theatre Company, Studio Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre (Company Member), Santa Cruz Shakespeare, Portland Center Stage, Syracuse Stage, Capitol Repertory Theatre, and more. Cody was the Artistic Associate at Gulfshore Playhouse, he is a 5 time Helen Hayes Award nominee, and the recipient of the Connecticut Critics Circle Award. Cody is a graduate of the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama. Upcoming projects include Appropriate at Olney Theatre Center and Sally and Tom at Round House Theatre.


ABOUT THE CREATIVE TEAM
Robert Bowen Smith Headshot

Robert Bowen Smith (Choreography) is an actor and choreographer based in the DC metro area. Bowen Smith teaches movement and acting at University of Maryland and has received two Helen Hayes Nominations for Outstanding Choreography. Select theater credits include: A New Brain, Fly By Night (1st Stage); The Raid (Theater Alliance), Hurricane Diane (Avant Bard); Wonderland: Alice's Rock and Roll Adventure, Davy Copperfield, Pelligro's Island, Jungle Book, New Kid (Imagination Stage); Night of the living Dead (Rorschach Theater); The Dragon, Frontiers Sans Frontiers (Spooky Action Theater). In the Spring Bowen Smith will co-choreograph Once at Next Stop Theater with Solas Nua's artistic director Rex Daugherty. This is Bowen Smith's first collaboration with Solas Nua.


Gisela Estrada headshot

Gisela Estrada (Scenic Design) is a Salvadoran passionate artist, designer and storyteller who loves to collaborate and bring a new and fresh perspective to the table. Gisela’s recent credits include Covenant (Theater Alliance, Helen Hayes Award Winner for Outstanding Scenic Design), Botiquín de Boleros (Gala Hispanic Theater), Faithless (Washington Stage Guild), Twelfth Night (Prince George Community College), The Trans-Atlantic Time Traveling Company(Theater Alliance), Passing Strange (Portland Playhouse), Orlando Paladino (A.J. Fletcher Opera Institute), Saturday Night Fever, Chicago (Onstage – El Salvador), Aladdin Ballet (Macholah – El Salvador). She holds an MFA in Scenic Design from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. www.giselaestrada.com 

 


Kenny Neal headshot

Kenny Neal (Sound Design) is a Helen Hayes Award-winning sound designer and composer. DC area credits include: Signature Theatre: Strategic Love Play, JobThe Upstairs DepartmentDaphne’s DiveHeisenbergJohnThe Gulf; Studio Theatre: DownstateEnglishStraight White MenJumpers for GoalpostsChoir Boy; Round House Theatre: SojournersThe Seafarer; The Kennedy Center: She a GemDigging Up Dessa; Olney Theatre Center: A Nice Indian BoyDance NationThe RoyaleOil; Mosaic Theatre: PrecariousPrivate; 1st Stage: The Last MatchAirnesscolumbinusJesus Hopped the ‘A’ TrainWellFloyd CollinsOld Wicked SongsBat Boy; Faction of Fools: How the Sausage Gets MadeThe Moors, and more.

Regional credits include: English at Barrington Stage (MA), Becoming Dr. Ruth at Theatre J (DC), Cleveland Playhouse (OH), The Village Theatre (WA), and The Maltz Jupiter Theatre (FL)


Alberto Segarra Headshot

Alberto Segarra's (Lighting Design) DC credits include: Andy Warhol in Iran at Mosaic Theater, Your Name Means Dream at Theatre J, The Scenarios at Studio Theatre, Romeo & Juliet at Folger Theatre, The Nance at 1st Stage (Helen Hayes nomination), The Honey Trap (Helen Hayes Award) at Solas Nua, Look Both Ways at Kennedy Center/Theatre Alliance (Helen Hayes nomination), The Joy That Carries You (Helen Hayes nomination) at Olney Theatre Center, and Blood at the Root (Helen Hayes Award) at Theatre Alliance. Regional credits: Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery at Alley Theatre, The Lehman Trilogy at Maltz Jupiter Theatre, What the Constitution Means to Me at Cleveland Playhouse, Business Ideas at Alliance Theatre, and Camelot: The Musical at Village Theatre.


Logan Benson Headshot

Logan Benson (Costume Design) is a costume designer and technician based in the DMV. She was a recent Kenan Fellow with The Kennedy Center and MFA graduate of UNC School of the Arts. Some of her costume credits include Lizzie: The MusicalHand to God (Keegan Theatre); Covenant (Theater Alliance); Dialogues of the Carmelites (Wolf Trap Opera); Akira Kurasawa Explains His Movies And Yogurt (Woolly Mammoth); Dancing at Lughnasa, Much Ado About Nothing, The Liar (American Players Theatre); Orlando Paladino, as televised on the PBS special "Opera in Space" (AJ Fletcher Opera Institute); Lydia (UNCSA). Please see more of her work at www.bensonlogan02.wixsite.com/lbportfolio


Isabel Simoes deCarvalho Headshot

Isabel Simoes deCarvalho (Prop Design) is a scenic, prop and projection designer based in Washington DC. In the DC area Isabel has had the opportunity to work with Studio Theater, Theater Alliance, Duke Ellington School of the Arts, and more. Check out more of Isabel’s work on her website: https://www.isabelsimoes.design/


Isabella Tapia Headshot

Isabella Tapia (Stage Manager; she/her) is ecstatic to join Solas Nua as the stage manager for the North American premiere of Lie Low. DC AREA: Schmigadoon!, Finn (World Premieres, The Kennedy Center) | King John, The Taming of the Shrew (Shakespeare Theatre Company Academy) | American Fast, fire work (Theater Alliance) | The Woman in Black (Keegan Theatre) | Atlas INTERSECTIONS Festival |  NEW YORK: In:Formation Festival (Lincoln Center) | Sequence Events OTHER: Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival INTERNATIONAL: Edinburgh Fringe Festival, The Royal Ballet.  BFA in Stage Management from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. isabellatapia.com



Related events