SADIE Davidson is a name which has kept popping up on the spoken word and literary scene, following her position under the spotlight as a semi finalist at the UK Poetry Slam Championship 2016.

You could say being a former stripper and recovering addict has given her an undeniably interesting basis for material, and people want to hear what this 35 year old, who is reported to have a rep as being "furious and unstoppable", has to say.

She often performs as her alter ego, Barbie the Bard, and her audiences have been those of various festivals and poetry events, including at the Royal Festival Hall and hosting the Dangerous Poetry gigs held in Southend. Her work has been published in the London Spoken Word Anthology and featured on radio, and her CD, Council House and Silent, was released late last year under Spoken Label. Now she is entering her first foray into the world of theatre as a playwright.

Said piece is titled Bare Lies, directed by Leigh based film maker James Wilsher, who's latest full length feature film - Sisters - was screened at the Southend Film Festival.

Bare Lies opens this Saturday in Southend, as part of the Southend Festival.

The play, says Sadie, a "modern whodunnit" focusing on police interviews with an all female line-up of suspects, which include strippers, put-upon upper-middle class housewives, drug dealers and outrageously flamboyant police informers.

"However" she adds, "as in real life, none of these characters is what they seem. While the truth is eventually revealed, there are several interpretations as to exactly how, why and at whose hand these crimes were instigated - and ultimately, it is up to the audience to decide each individual's level of involvement and guilt."

And if you are wondering if this play draws on Sadie's past, in short, yes.

"Bare Lies is the culmination of a lot of things really - a way for me to explore my past from a different perspective and draw on my experiences to try and turn them in to something useful" she explained. "Hopefully it shines a light on how the way these roles - stripper, drug addict, prostitute, good citizen - are perceived, and how in reality they differ greatly to those perceptions".

Indeed, such perceptions may lead the majority to make assumptions about how one becomes a stripper, and wonder what it was that led this woman from such a stereotypically dark place to discover the shining beacon of her creativity.

"I was enormously privileged as a child in that I was frequently taken to the theatre, and to musicals. I was read to daily and introduced to poetry at an early age, which has made all the difference" she said.

"I was a stripper for a long time and at first it was great fun - it gave me opportunities I wouldn't otherwise have had, the chance to travel around Europe and to meet other women from around the world - South America, South East Asia, Africa, Australia - with incredible back stories of their own.

"Sadly though, yacht parties and money men often come hand in hand with drugs, and like every other addict I thought addiction was beneath me. It wasn't. Within a few years I was cynical, exhausted and bored, as well as sick of being a disappointment to both myself and my family. I got a grip and while starting a family of my own I hit upon the idea of poetry as a creative outlet through which to process my experiences and realised I loved it."

She added: "Writing has offered me a way to confront my own experiences and share them with others - particularly my experiences with poverty and social housing. It's also given the chance to speak on behalf of those who don't usually have the opportunity to be heard, whether that's people who live in social housing, or drug addicts, or prostitutes. And it's a responsibility I take extremely seriously. Whatever I write, I read back and ask myself 'is this true?'. And people, incredibly, have been listening to me... and if people are listening you'd better make damn sure you're saying something worth listening to. And it had better be true! You have to come clean in the end - If you want to contribute to the world in a positive way, in a way that helps yourself as well as others and makes things better, you can't go through life telling everyone bare lies."

Bare Lies is to be staged in a "site-specific, secret location" from 6:30pm until 8pm.

To maintain secrecy, audience members will be escorted to the venue from a location within a five minute walk, and will receive the meeting point information just before the performance.

To book, email bareliesproduction@gmail.com