Perle

Using a man who can only speak through his television set doesn't seem like the most obvious way to re-imagine a medieval poem. But in his version of 14th century text Perle, writer and performer Thomas Eccleshare has found a tender, intelligent and vivid way of dealing with the subject of grief and loss.

Thomas, the protagonist, initially seems to be one of those lonely and eccentric silent clowns, a man who communicates awkwardly with members of the audience through pre-recorded chat-up lines that appear on his TV. But there is a darker side to Thomas's disengagement with the world which becomes painfully apparent when the images on his television keep returning to a single white circle – the 'perle' of the title. When it begins to take the shape of a little girl's face, he repeatedly has to switch it off.

By using video as the only means for Thomas to interact with us, Eccleshare throws up all kinds of questions about the way we store, nurture and erase memories—particularly in a digital age—as well as providing a creative and painfully honest analogue for feelings of detachment and loss. All the objects in Thomas's world exist only on the television screen. When they cross over into the real world—when he answers a ringing phone for instance—they become nothing but invisible mime.

Eccleshare is a performer you want to watch—warm, adorable and heartbreaking in his melancholy—while Serge Seidlitz's illustrations bring a childlike charm to this touching live cartoon.