L’Agneau a menti is the first of three contemporary fables making up the Lapin Cachalot cycle – three commissions made to three separate authors by stage director Émilie Flacher. The two other plays are Julie Aminthe’s Les Acrobates and Gwendoline Soublin’s /T(e)r:::i/e:::r. The cycle aims at renewing animal fable as a genre by immersing the audience into an ecosystem and inviting them to look at the world of humans from the point of view of other living beings that inhabit it.

Anaïs Vaugelard was inspired by a true story—in the Netherlands, in February 2018, a cow escaped on its way to the slaughterhouse, and it found shelter in the woods. This awakened a sense of solidarity among the locals. The play was also enriched by conversations between the author and primary school children in Bourg-en-Bresse. The show is suitable for all audiences aged 7 or more.

A dirty and emaciated Agneau (Lamb) is alone and followed by a Vautour (Vulture) waiting for him to die to eat him. The Agneau arrives in a pasture where he hopes to be taken in by a new Troupeau (Flock). The Troupeau asks him questions and reproaches him for having lied: he said at first that he did not know what had happened to his own flock, before admitting that they had all been killed. The Troupeau therefore refuses to take him in, and the sheep send the Patou – the sheepdog that watches over them – to chase him away. But the Patou knows the lonely Agneau’s original flock. In fact, he was raised there by Bella the ewe, whom he thinks of as her mother. As a consequence, he is convinced that the Agneau is his brother. Patou kisses him, tells him that he can stay in the Troupeau and that dogs and sheep are not different. He starts bleating to prove it and he teaches the Agneau how to bark.