To Move In Time

But the British author and director Tim Etchells explores this fantasy with a relentless consistency and logic. 

The monologue begins harmlessly enough. Tyrone Huggins declaims it with judicious calm, in a mixture of innocent curiosity and concern for the effects of his own imagination. At first he would only makes small changes to the past, to avoid mistakes, accidents and catastrophes. But then he begins to travel further back in time, visiting historically significant locations or putting himself into the background of famous photographs. Perhaps he would also use the advantage of time travel to get rich through clever investments. The deeper Etchells delves into the matter, the more it becomes an existential meditation.

Etchells’ text in Huggins’ extraordinarily powerful performance oscillates between comic absurdity and melancholy. To Move in Time is an obsessive stream of consciousness not only about the kick and excitement of time travel but also about questions of ethical values and priorities: what counts, what is tended and what can be changed?