'Incognito' by Nick Payne
Nottingham New Theatre

The brain is a story telling machine, but can we really believe everything that it tells us?

Princeton, New Jersey. 1955. Thomas Stoltz Harvey, a pathologist, performs the autopsy on Albert Einstein - and then steals his brain.

Scenario 2: Bath, England. 1953. Henry undergoes pioneering brain surgery. The surgery changes Henry's life, and the history of neuroscience. London, England. Henry Molaison, known in scientific circles as Patient HM, who had parts of his brain removed to cure his epileptic seizures. But he suffered chronic memory loss as a result,

Scenario 3: The Present story concerns Martha, a clinical neuropsychologist and a lawyer called Patricia. They meet through a lonely hearts column, but Martha neglects to tell her new lover that she was married for 21 years and has a grown-up son.

Three interwoven stories exploring the nature of identity and how we are defined by what we remember, “Incognito” is an interesting exploration of what it means to be human.

The play is also split into three sections entitled Encoding, Storing and Retrieving with two intervals. Personally I could have watched this straight through because of the intensity of the script and acting, but I appreciate that parts of the set had to be changed at the intervals.

There are some new names in the cast of eleven, playing eighteen characters.

Sam André-Paul (Henry Maison), Miguel Barrulas (Dr Thomas Harvey), Sophie Curtis (Martha), Bolu Fayese (Patricia), Adam Hennessey (Victor/Jon), Jacob Gausden (Greg/Hans/Freddy), Morgan Beale(Ben/Michael), Tejas Dattani (Anthony/Otto), Jessica Staplehurst (Margaret/Sharon/Anna), Lucy Chandler (Elouise/Evelyn) and Abi Platt (Lisa-Scott).

I would like to mention Bolu because there were times in the first two acts I struggled to hear some of her lines, it could be where I sat on the third row from the front, but all of a sudden, come Act three, Patricia's passionate speech emerged and that made such a difference and we witnessed great voice projection from Bolu.

The further you got into the story the more it all knitted together and the clearer the connections became.

This must have been a mammoth task for the Director Zoe Smith and Assistant Director William Hopwood,, having three scenes and scenarios going at the same time. Mammoth or not, this fascinating story was woven. very smoothly. Zoe and William were ably helped by Producer Abi Platt.

Loved the video design by Jess Donn and the set design by Zoe Smith. As usual the Light (Sam Osborne) and Sound Design (Arthur Mckechnie) played a big part in this production.

The actors who had the roles with the accents - American, Irish, German - did a really good job on the whole. I can always tell if an actor has cracked the American accent if I can identify the area to the accent and I did.We all, me included, think we can do an accent or two, but concentrating on any accent and delivering lines and acting is never as easy as most people think. Jack Ellis and Oliver Binns were the accent coaches.

I was particularly touched by the Henry Molaison scenes,and you realise how frustrating it is, not just for the patient, but for everyone involved in that ripple effect. Imagine having such a short memory span and not remembering who these people are around you, but replaying the same old script over and over again, as if you were hitting the repeat button for a section of your life.

Intense and fascinating, and another educational visit to the New Theatre for me, which made me come away with plenty to think about.