Antechamber – Stereoptik / Barbican, London

French duo Stereoptik return to bring more worlds to life in front of an eager MimeLondon crowd with Antechamber.

The Return of an Old Favourite

When I first came across the London International Mime Festival in 2022 (several decades behind the curve), a performance by Stereoptik was one of the events I saw. 2023 was the last iteration of LIMF, but thankfully it has been replaced by a smaller curatorial project: MimeLondon. And as you may have guessed, Stereoptik are part of the line up and are back at the Barbican.

When I saw Stellaire two years ago I spoke about Stereoptik’s modus operandi. But I’m going to assume you don’t memorise everything I write about (or maybe you’re new here – hello!) and will therefore indulge in a quick recap. Stereoptik consists of two multi-talented individuals, Jean-Baptiste Maillet and Romain Bermond. What exactly it is they do cannot be captured in a simple phrase. It’s part live animation, and live cinema, and experimental visual effects. With music. And, in this case, an actual film as well. The set up consists of a big desk on either side of the stage, and a screen in the middle. Maillet and Bermond together create scenes to a partly live score and project them for the audience. Their techniques are manifold. They draw on paper, paint, create light effects with sieves and tiny disco balls, animate figures with magnets. The list goes on.

It’s really quite remarkable to watch. As an audience member you feel a constant pull between wanting to watch them create each scene, and wanting to watch the intended result on screen. And, just as I had a note on seating for audiences for Last Rites recently, I have another one here: the seats to the left of the stage have the best views of Stereoptik at work. As was the case for Last Rites, Antechamber is also accessible to d/Deaf and hearing audiences thanks to the joys of non-verbal performance and a reverberating, bass-heavy sound mix.

Antechamber

Looking back at my previous post on a Stereoptik production, it’s interesting to note the similarities and differences. Both Stellaire and Antechamber intertwine a romantic storyline with a contemplation of bigger themes. They share some, but not all, of the same effects. But a key difference is in the structure of the shows themselves. Where Stellaire was entirely a live animation telling a fairly linear narrative story, Antechamber is something quite different, and perhaps more introspective.

Antechamber is a work in two parts (differentiated by onscreen titles). The first is Creative Research. The second is Le Film. Creative Research is the longer of the two, and consists of a series of scenes exploring different techniques and effects. There are recurring motifs like a couple, and a rainforest, but it’s not telling us a story per se. Everything comes into focus when we watch ‘le film’ and see it come together. Maillet and Bermond leave the stage while their film plays, and we watch as the nascent love story and Amazonian rainforest scenes are stitched together into a lovely little story.

Because the bulk of Antechamber is more about method than outcome, it’s actually a lot of fun to watch. It’s very transfixing – almost meditative – watching each scene come together. The format of ‘behind the scenes’ and then finished film raises interesting questions about what we’ve seen. Are Stereoptik performers or film makers? Or both? Is the creative research process a finished work in its own right?

But it hardly matters in the end. Such lofty thoughts can easily be pushed aside in favour of watching the magic unfold in front of you. What a treat to have Stereoptik back in London as part of this new format festival.

Salterton Arts Review’s rating: 4/5

Antechamber on until 3 February 2024