Toujours et pres de moi at The Print Room

Toujours et pres de moi at The Print Room

16 May, 2012
by: Ricky PS

Toujours et pres de moi is remarkably impressibe despite its lack of emotional impact a says Ricky Sayeed

Patrick Eakin Young has turned his actors into ghosts. With the help of a projector and lights, the image of their bodies going in and out of love floats through the air—or, rather, on a huge glass plate that hangs menacingly before the audience. Behind that glass, actors Anna Martine and Klas Lagerlund also perform in the flesh, moving around antique boxes that their smaller, ghostlier selves appear to exit, enter, bathe in and climb upon. It sounds simple and embarrassingly Victorian, but it made us all gasp and sigh.

Even older than the tech is the story it tells. It’s the battle between lovers, so in quick succession we see sex, laughs, cruelty, adultery, fighting, crying and reconciliation. One advantage to using this tale is that you don’t need to tell it. We know the characters, events and dynamics already, so Eakin
Young can cut the basic story up, take out the boring bits and move it all around. The result is a critical, sometimes witty comparison of moments in a romance. 

All this is done without fault, but ghosts leave you cold. Rather than a roller-coaster of archetypes, this felt subdued and analytical which is interesting, but I was always hoping I’d well up or get riled. What's more, the technology is unusual and therefore very visible so it distances an audience, which is exacerbated by placing the real Martine and Lagerlund as spectators to their own miniature drama.

Nonetheless, their performances on glass and onstage were capable, sensitive and turned deftly from violence to passion, and from passion to wit. As Man and Woman, they are clearly lovers, but when Girl, played by Jordan Stevens, intrudes on their projected romance, she could be their child, a mistress, or both. To allow that possibility, the performances were admirably ambiguous. Again, however, the effect is not emotional turmoil but dispassionate description.

These performances were aided by Lee Curran’s subtle lighting design, and generally balanced by Eakin Young’s thoughtful choice of unaccompanied vocal music, which helped create a tight space. I tried to avoid being blinded by the thrill of an excellent design, but given its low emotional impact, the way this production can focus the mind is very impressive.


Toujours et pres de moi runs at The Print Room until 26th May. 



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Ricky PS