London-based company ERRATICA presents state-of-the-art performance at MIAF.

A captivating holographic music-theatre performance, set entirely to music blending Renaissance madrigals and contemporary vocal music, will soon wow at the upcoming Malta International Arts Festival (MIAF).

For one-night-only during the Festival, UK-based company ERRATICA will present the innovative Toujours et Près de Moi?, which uses a 19th century theatrical illusion known as a Pepper’s Ghost. In this illusion, ghostly objects appear to fade in or out of existence on the stage.

“I had been working with small-scale Pepper’s Ghost illusions for a while, and I wanted to make a piece that featured both holograms and humans interacting with them,” explains the production’s director and ERRATICA Artistic Director, Patrick Eakin Young. “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.”

The piece is designed to be performed with five unaccompanied classical singers who enhance the on-stage action with a score of Renaissance madrigals and contemporary vocals. “When I was creating this piece, I specifically wanted to work with the amazing vocal ensemble EXAUDI (who are performing with us in Malta), and this is their repertoire,” continues Patrick. “This piece was created like an opera or dance piece, with the performance growing out of the drama of the music itself.”

As the five singers perform this unique music a cappella, two actors move around a table that show projected holograms of their past selves – which the actors themselves cannot see, and yet perform alongside in a complex choreography that tells a moving story, as Patrick explains. “It’s about a couple who are magically 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.”

First performed at The Print Room, London, in May 2012, Toujours Et Prés De Moi? was shown at the Spitalfields Winter Festival 2012 before being revived at the 2018 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The production now joins the diverse programme of the 14th edition of the MIAF, which this year will take place between 28 June and 14 July.

Toujours et Près de Moi? will be performed by ERRATICA at 9pm on Friday 5 July, at Valletta Campus Theatre (ex MITP), St Paul Street, Valletta. Tickets are now available. To view the full programme of the Malta International Arts Festival 2019, please visit www.festivals.mt/miaf or www.facebook.com/MaltaArtsFestival/