Before Long
With text and dance by Alan Lucien Øyen and 16mm film shot by Norwegian filmmaker Ulirk Imtiaz Rolfsen, Before Long centres on the end of a relationship between two people. the end — or perhaps the moment we realise the end — the beginning of the end.
Clear, sentimental, loving and melancholic – ‘before long’ is a beautifully composed performance.
The vast distance creates an immediate sense of time passing, and ceasing to exist, in one spatial moment.
In before long, the auditorium is turned sideways and the audience follows the two performers on a shallow stage in front of a super-wide-screen canvas. The film and text are reflections on the subjects of loss and endings.
When you sense your daughter will let go of your hand. The last hot day before autumn. The beginning of the end is the transition from one scene to another. from being together to being alone. When does this loneliness begin? When do we first realise that we are getting old? The beginning of the end is the moment you sit across from the one you love the most and say, “I miss you”. Is it not already with the first kiss that we slowly start to drift apart? Like ships into the night. We are born to die alone. And no matter how close to each other we feel, it’s like the stars in the sky: they glow above us even though most of them went out a long, long time ago.