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Theatre

Incognito, Bush Theatre

14 May 14 – 21 Jun 14, 7:30 PM – 10:00 PM

Dazzling young talent Nick Payne impresses with this fascinatingly layered exploration of human brain function, memory, and self.

By CW Contributor on 15/4/2014

1 CW reader is interested
Incognito, Bush Theatre
Incognito, Bush Theatre
Incognito, Bush Theatre Incognito, Bush Theatre Matthew Wright
The premiere performance of Nick Payne’s Incognito at the HighTide theatre festival generated a flurry of praise. Having already broken records as the youngest ever winner of the Evening Standard’s best play award with the recent Constellations, Incognito has been described as Paine’s best play yet. The Guardian theatre critic Michael Billington described it as ‘a better play in its formal ingenuity and intellectual adventurousness’. This May it transfers to the Bush Theatre for the debut London performance.

Showcasing the structural ingenuity for which he is becoming renowned, Payne entwines three tales to explore the complexities of the human brain. First we are transported back to 1950s America as a pathologist decides to steal Albert Einstein’s brain in the name of scientific development. Then we cross the Atlantic to look at the English approach to neurology in the same era with a depiction of the muddled aftermath of pioneering brain surgery. Finally we end in contemporary London with a bisexual neuropsychologist on the brink of a broken marriage who believes that the brain is an illusion: ‘there is no me, there is no you, and there is certainly no self’.

This web of illusion and identity is reflected in the flitting form and layered intensity of Payne’s writing. The themes of memory, self and free will that he explored so captivatingly in Constellations are recapitulated here. As Payne’s third play in 12 months Incognito is set to be the promising young playwright’s biggest success so far.

Joe Murphy’s direction brings clarity to the separate but overlapping stories, plaiting them together deftly. An engrossing performance is given by Paul Hickey (Saving Private Ryan), Amelia Lowndell (Essex Boys; Taming of the Shrew), Sargon Yelda (Dead Cat) and Alison O’Donell (BBC’s Shetland). Given the rave reviews this show’s brief staging in Suffolk garnered, this is a must-see on the London stage.


What Incognito, Bush Theatre
Where Bush Theatre, 7 Uxbridge Road, London, W12 8LJ | MAP
Nearest tube Shepherd's Bush Market (underground)
When 14 May 14 – 21 Jun 14, 7:30 PM – 10:00 PM
Price £19.5
Website Click here to book via the Bush Theatre

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  • Culture Whisper says...

    "Four astonishingly agile performances, as well as minutely precise direction, ensure that Nick Payne’s high-octane play hits hard. The result is exhilarating and exhausting; a narrative constituted of fragments, as complex as its neuroscientific theme. Tender moments of humour, sorrow and scrupulously-observed human mannerism prevent this cerebral play from feeling too clinical".

    What the Critics Say

    GUARDIAN

    “Payne keeps us constantly engaged, both emotionally and intellectually.” 

    Michael Billington

    TELEGRAPH

    “With nothing but bursts of light and sound to guide us between scenes, the four magnificent actors: Alison O'Donnell, Paul Hickey, Amelia Lowdell and Sargon Yelda treat us to a fluid journey in and out of the minds of a seemingly disparate group of people all of whom are, for various reasons, divorced from their pasts.”

    FT

    "Payne collected an armful of awards a couple of years ago for Constellations , a love story set in the parallel universes of quantum theory. Incognito, with its numerous questions of mind, brain and identity, is more ambitious, more complex, more demanding on an audience . . .  and more successful."

    Ian Shuttleworth

    EATING

    Shepherds Bush is not known as a gastronomic destination, and there are plenty of safe choices in the nearby Westfield Centre. But if you're prepared to try something a bit different we can recommend Tianfu, an authentic, chilli-soaked Szechuan Restaurant on nearby Bulwer St; or Vine Leaves, a popular, family-run Greek taverna a short walk up the Uxbridge Road. 

1

Nick Payne

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