Adam Kissequel and George Tobal tell a vivid story about death

Sometimes a story doesn’t have to be complicated or even original to be moving. It just depends on how you tell that story. And with who. Actors and theater makers Adam Kissequel and George Tobal join in To live see how to do that: tell a story where everyone can already draw the steps and the sad ending will not be a surprise to anyone, but which is still moving.

First of all, it is in the text. Tobal wrote it himself and produced the performance with his own group George & Eran Producties. Abdel Daoudi was brought in to direct. What they do is make the contrasts as great as possible. That starts with the title To livefor a performance about death.

It’s a story about two friends (also named Adam and George) who are young and have a lot of time on their hands. That’s why they like to sit on trains and see where they end up. They prefer to always be on the move. One day they meet a girl, Roos, who easily matches the boys in terms of zest for life, intelligence and humor. They become friends.

In the next scene things are immediately wrong: tumors have been found in Roos. What begins is a long process of hospital visits, uncomfortable conversations with doctors, chemotherapy, remissions and metastases. A story that unfortunately we all know.

We never get to see Roos on stage. We watch dialogues between the two boys. They must find a place for the abrupt presence of death in their usually unsuspecting lives. And that results in wonderful conversations that swing back and forth between swaggering boyish humor and moving escape behavior. A bit like Kluun also wrote down in A woman comes to the doctor, but without the irritating macho element. George and Adam are smart, sensitive boys who must learn how to allow the unthinkable into their lives.

Here that unspeakable takes the form of music by Beethoven, Schubert and Brahms, among others, played by the string quartet Club Classique. In a completely different, contrasting dialogue, that between the text and the music, the musicians increasingly impose themselves on the actors, until text and music, life and death, coincide. That music gives this To live sometimes also a bit subdued. But this is offset by the infectious acting of Kissequel and Tobal, who jump through the set with the energy of two young dogs. They do not allow themselves to be pinned down by a fixed belief, assumption or attitude. Everything moves.