The Forerunner

The Forerunner (2013) is a solo work originally created and performed by Julyen Hamilton. The Forerunner is a work that examines the notion of the future and furthermore, time. Its protagonist, The Forerunner himself, is both a person and the concept of a person that is always ahead of their time. Within the frame of The Forerunner he exists in the present but is constantly busy with what’s next in both literal - what is the next movement, the next word, the next placement - as well as in metaphorical terms - what does the future bring, how to process that, while experiencing it all at the same time.

He is the person at the very front of the ship, receiving all that is happening whilst looking forward to anything that might come next. He is by default alone. The Forerunner is busy with the future and subsequently busy with the past. He looks at the concept of time not as a line, but as points that are interconnected by something bigger than himself, bigger than a single individual. In essence, he is not only the person on stage, but also all the other forerunners that existed before him and will exist after him.

In practical terms, this aligns with the technique that Julyen himself created. His technique on instantly composing and/or improvising asks the performer to listen to their inner world, their physiology, emotions and intellectual processes while allowing the experience of what is happening through and to them to lead them to the next thing.

Throughout the piece, The Forerunner uses language and movement that effectively transmits two things. First, the concept of the piece, how he is busy with the future, and secondly it hints to how being the Forerunner takes a toll on the individual that is in a constant state of solitude by always looking ahead. The texts present in the piece have an abstract tone that throughout the piece becomes more and more concise, gradually and steadily painting the image of a madman. Much like the role of the Fool that acts as the court’s jester in Shakespeare’s King Lear, The Forerunner delivers the truth - or what he considers to be the truth - of his time, in a subtle way through his own madness.