Photograph of the empty set designed by Paul Nash for The Truth about the Russian Dancers at the London Coliseum, 1920. It shows the Great Hall of Vere Castle. A wide staircase descends, left, from a balcony decorated with a modern interpretation of a hunting scene. Open doors beneath the balcony give a glimpse of a garden. The directions for the play describe the scene as ‘One of the stately Homes of England, but it has gone a little queer owing to the presence in the house of a disturbing visitor.’

The Truth about the Russian Dancers, was a play by J. M. Barrie showing how Russian dancers 'love, how they marry, how they are made, with how they die and live happy ever afterwards’, which was produced by Gerald du Maurier with designs by Paul Nash. The music was by Arnold Bax. The play featured ballerina Tamara Karsavina as Karissima and she choreographed her role and the dances of the corps de ballet. She wrote in her introduction to the Dance Perspectives14, the publication of a version of the play's manuscript, Spring 1962, that the main theme of the piece was ‘that the Russian dancers are not like ordinary humans. They are called into being by a master spirit and can only express themselves through their own medium: they find it so much jollier to talk with their toes.�

The Truth about the Russian Dancers was one of the short plays added to the programmes at the London Coliseum following the revision of licencing regulations in 1912 which permitted music halls to present narrative works. J. M. Barrie had originally planned a play for Lydia Lopokova (an actress as well as ballerina) but this play fitted Karsavina's plans to develop her own programme along side appearing with the Ballets Russes and promote British talent on stage. Hence the invitations to Arnold Bax and Paul Nash to collaborate on the production.

The play opened within a variety programme at the London Coliseum on 15 March 1920 and ran for five weeks. It was revived at the Savoy Theatre, London, on 28 July 1926.