Louis makes us think about
the world we live in without
forgetting to feel, and feel
without forgetting to think
‘How is this?’
why and how homophobia and racism might
become ‘normal’ in a working class community,
offended liberal values notwithstanding.
And isn’t theatre always a public conversation
of some kind? And the experience of watching
it a reflection on one’s own place either within
or in relation to that conversation? Or at least,
that’s the kind of theatre I hope to make: a
deeply personal experience and a shared
social event, where meaning arises from the
negotiation between the two.
What makes The End of Eddy theatre for
Stewart Laing and myself, is Louis’ ability
to communicate his lived experience with
humour, anger and compassion, without
resolving its complexities. At the same time
he’s Eddy, the hurt and lonely child, he’s also
Louis the sociologist and storyteller. His family
are characters of his creation as much as they
are case histories. He’s a Parisian intellectual
revisiting himself as a horny teenager. He’s a
voice of the working class and a class-traitor.
He is brilliantly clever and filled with shame.
Louis makes us think about the world we live
in without forgetting to feel and feel without
forgetting to think ‘How is this?’
But what we love above all, is that it was
through his love of theatre, Louis was first able
to imagine a different life for himself.
— Pamela Carter