Sanningsland

About the Project

With the support of the European Commission in Sweden’s communication funding, Smart Coop carried out a project in 2025 to support the performing arts group Motus and their theatre production Sanningsland.

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Sanningsland is a physical theatre performance about what happens behind the scenes of a family faced by the questions a global conflict. It is a fast-paced, humorous, and playful production about propaganda and disinformation, and about what happens to a family when its members end up on different sides of the truth.

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Motus is a newly established independent theatre group working with a physical stage language, with the aim of challenging and renewing theatre as an art form. In addition to performances, Motus offers performing artists contexts and opportunities for development through, among other things, workshops and technical training.

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In collaboration with Motus, we invited audiences to engage in a dialogue on the effects of disinformation and propaganda in a time marked by hybrid warfare, digital threats, and an increasingly vulnerable democracy.

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In connection with the performance, a mini-festival with panel discussions was organized: on 30 September in Stockholm and on 7 October 2025 in Örebro. We invited experts who have deepened their work on the societal effects of disinformation. The discussions highlighted disinformation and propaganda from various perspectives, with a focus on what EU citizens can do to protect themselves and others from propaganda’s influence and manipulation.

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Through the project, we sought to highlight the complexity at both the individual and societal levels in a time of concern and uncertainty, where the struggle over perceptions of reality is constantly present. We also aimed to lay ground for free dialogue and the right to express one’s opinion.

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The performance was presented in 2025 at Teater Giljotin in Stockholm from 23 September to 1 October, and at Teater Martin Mutter in Örebro from 7 to 10 October. It was performed during the daytime for lower secondary school students, as well as in evening performances open to the general public.

 

Summary of the project’s qualitative and quantitative results:
 

• The performance was staged 14 times in Stockholm, in addition to two run-throughs with an audience, and three times in Örebro.

• A total of 1,065 people attended the performances in Stockholm and Örebro; 60% of them were lower secondary school students.

• Two themed evenings were held, featuring three different panel discussions, networking, and a performance.

• Visiting schools received educational materials for further classroom work.

• Twelve people were employed or remunerated to work on the project.

• The project was carried out in close collaboration with Teater Giljotin and Teater Martin Mutter.
   

Below is the team behind the production.
 

Idea/Director: Dasha Lind
Actors: Tanya Makarenko, Fabian Hedlund och Maria Påhls
Playwright: Elsa Berggren
Scenography/costume design: Sofia Romberg
Light design/Technician: Kajsa-Sara Hogenlid
Sound design: Leonard Thinsz Jansson
Dramaturg/Education material: Adam Knapasjö
Producer/Communication: Maria Lindeberg
Director’s assistant: Inger Kolterud
Graphic design: Johan Elford
Photo: Eli Vindes