Toujours et Près de Moi is a piece that focuses on the theatrical illusion referred to as Pepper’s Ghost technique. Patrick Eakin Young, the creator of the show, explains to Adam Brimmer what the illusion is all about and how this is used to convey themes of memory throughout the show.
Toujours et Près de Moi is inspired by the Pepper’s Ghost technique. What led to your fascination with it?
When I made this piece, I had been working with small-scale Pepper’s Ghost illusions for a while. Originally, I read about the technique in the newspaper. I was living in Johannesburg at the time, and I didn’t have many collaborators, so I thought: here is a way to make a theatre piece with no actors!
However, once I started working with it, I became more interested in the way it resonates with themes of memory. Memory is one of the topics that I seem to always return to. I am fascinated with the effect of memory and the past on the present. Many of my pieces deal with this, not just those using Pepper’s Ghost.
When I made Toujours, I wanted to make a piece that featured both Pepper’s Ghost figures and humans interacting with them. The subject matter was suggested by the form: holograms are like ghosts, and ghosts are about the past haunting the present, so I wanted to make a piece about two people whose past is made manifest in front of them.
In a world full of special effects, the technique remains invaluable in theatrical terms – to what do you attribute this?
Well, it is pretty magical! In my show, I reveal everything. You see the mirror hanging in space, you see the projection on the floor. If you wanted to, you could figure out the illusion while you watch the show. But you are drawn in by the images, you forget about the way it is made, and you cannot help but believe that they are there. This, for me, is the most magical, because you know that it is fake, but you cannot help believing it. Maybe this is why people still love Pepper’s Ghost?
The production is not your run-of-the-mill theatrical experience – what should the audience expect?
The piece is performed by five singers, two actors and projected holograms. The singers sing a mixture of renaissance madrigals and contemporary vocal pieces, all a cappella. The two performers move about a table. On the table are two wooden boxes, out of which leap holograms of their past selves. The holograms are created using an updated version of a 19th-century theatrical illusion called a Pepper’s Ghost. The technique uses a half-silvered mirrored surface, which reflects an image projected on to the floor. When you light behind the mirror and project in front of it, it looks like the images (in this case, little people) are actually in the space!
All the pieces speak to the narrative in various ways
The actors watch as the holograms jump in and out of boxes, love, fight or cry. The most difficult thing is that the performers cannot see the holograms at all and have to perform a complex choreography, all the while imagining where the little people are.
What are the themes that the narrative explores?
This piece is about how the past continues to influence to this day. It’s about a couple who magically are able to look back at their relationship – they experience the pain and trauma from their past all over again, but are able in the end to find some kind of reconciliation because of it. Sadness, trauma, loss – these experiences never truly leave us, but in facing them, we can find a way to connect and continue.
And how are these communicated to the audience?
Well, the medium suggests the themes of memory and loss. It’s inherent to a Pepper’s Ghost. But the driving force of the piece is in fact the music. This piece was created like an opera or dance piece, with the performance growing out of the drama of the music itself. Although the lyrics of the music does not directly tell the story, all the pieces speak to the narrative in various ways. The Pepper’s Ghost is clever and beautiful to watch, but it’s only in combination with the live music that it really communicates the feelings and themes that I was trying to convey.
What were the biggest challenges translating the piece from script to reality?
We didn’t have a script. This piece was created through improvisation and workshopping. I started with the music, and a vague idea of what I wanted to say (the three characters in the holograms, generally what they relationships were) and we let the piece evolve. However, once we created the video, then it became the script. This is the fourth time I’ve mounted this piece, and each time I have redirected it, but I am unable to change the video. So each time, I find new ways of making the video and the humans interact. New ways to tell the story of the two live actors, whose story it really is.
How have audiences reacted?
In general, people are very moved by it. And excited by the illusion! There is always a gasp when the first hologram appears, and that is always satisfying. But in truth the piece is not about the illusion, it is about the story of the man and woman depicted on stage, and people really seem to connect with them. Their story is not perfectly clear, but everyone seems to be able to read their own experiences in to theirs, and that is the most satisfying.
Toujours et Près de Moi is part of the Malta International Arts Festival programme and shows on July 5 at the University of Malta Valletta Campus, St Paul Street, Valletta at 9pm. Tickets are available online.