Review of To Move In Time at Birmingham Rep (The Door)

To Move In Time, is a monologue described on the producers website as "in which an unnamed protagonist speculates playfully about what he'd do if he were able to travel backwards and forwards in time".

To be fair it is a totally fascinating scenario and probably something almost everyone has thought about over time. It is such a wide scope as it could be personal, global or anywhere in between. It's such a scale that you wonder how writer Tim Etchells with his performer Tyrone Huggins could possibly condense such a scenario into a show not even an hour in length. Maybe they had time travel plans in operation in the theatre.

Truth be told Etchell works wonders around words and concepts of time-travel to insert every idea you could imagine into this brief moment of time.

It starts suitably enough small scale with the prevention of a friends wallet being lost for instance, or their friend being caught in a road accident. Etchell at first places us at this point before expanding the ambition of his protagonist to more global themes such as the prevention of a disaster or the early death of a mass murderer.

The evolution of the piece works like a brain storming session within the characters head. As each moment passes, he has more ambition or then less ambition of how to use his time travel power.

Etchell also develops it into the dangers of such a power, with the obvious mention of The Butterfly Effect as well. While this has been explored countless times in fiction, there is a freshness in Etchells approach, including some interesting exploration of what could happen after you do one minor thing and you find you have to return over and over again to repair the damage.

Sometimes the protagonist thinks not to do anything with his powers, but then at opposite he plans to create a world of his making fromit. Either way, every thread the piece explores intrigues. It is fascinating to see theoretically very simple ideas told in such a captivating way.

It helps that Etchells words are being presented by someone as watchable as Huggins. He has a storytelling ability to dream of, breathing life into every word and holding his audiences attention with ease.

Pace is also key, there are pauses and thoughts and looks that create a true performance leaving you absorbed in your seat far more than you might imagine from what initially sounds like quite a dry piece on paper.

Staging is simple in the extreme, a circle of index cards as the set, within which Huggins tells his story. This isn't about the visual aspect though but the skills of the storyteller, and writer, themselves. Honestly it didnt even need the circle, a blank stage would be all required.

To Move In Time is short, barely 50 minutes, but within that time is an encyclopedia of thoughts on time itself, what you might or might not do given the chance and as a piece of theatre it is so much more fascinating than you could even imagine.

An absorbing exploration of time skillfully told by Tyrone Huggins.
⭐⭐⭐⭐

Performance reviewed: Thursday 23rd May 2024 at The Birmingham Rep Theatre (The Door)

To Move In Time runs at the Birmingham Rep Theatre until Friday 24th May, 2024 before touring.

For further details about the Birmingham Rep and to book tickets see their website at https://www.birmingham-rep.co.uk/

Production Photos: Hugo Glendinning

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