CurtainUp
The Internet Theater Magazine of Reviews, Features,
Annotated Listings
|
CurtainUp The Internet Theater Magazine of Reviews, Features,
Annotated Listings |
|
A CurtainUp Review
Incognito
By Elyse Sommer
Now the award-winning young playwright, who's seen by many as an heir to Tom Stoppard, has once again created a dramatic intellectual puzzle about the workings of that most mysterious human organ, the brain. He's used the same edgy structure of fast-paced viewpoint switches and upped the number of actors from two to four. Unlike Constellation which was basically one story replaying the same characters' varied comings and going in parallel universes, Incognito zig-zags back and forth between three stories — two loosely fact-based and one completely fictional — involving twenty characters. Even with a larger cast, it's obviously daunting for these actors to clearly differentiate their constantly shifting personalitiess so that eventually everything coalesces. The scientific conundrums posed focus on what determines peoples' identity: Their brains? Their memories? Their jobs? Their relationships? But don't expect any definitive answers. What you can expect is that though the actors deftly and vividly individualize the four to six characters assigned to them, that you're likely to experience a few Huh, what's going on here? moments. A brief rundown of the three converging stories: The most dramatic and probably best known real story is Payne's version of how American pathologist Thomas Stoltz Harvey stole Einstein's brain. The most moving story revolves around a young Brit named Henry (in real life an American), whose experimental surgery to cure his seizures results in his inability to either form new memories or remember anything or anyone from his past; that is all except his beloved young bride Margaret. Consequently all the scenes about him begin like a broken old-style phonograph record with his "Hello my love, where have you been?" The most contemporary and strictly Payne inspired scenes involve two women who meet through a dating service. One is a neuropsychologist who's only recently left a conventional marriage and is still coping with being open about her new sexual identity and the other is a less inhibited lawyer. Geneva Carr, Charlie Cox, Heather Lind and Morgan Spector handle the to and fro between characters and story lines with great physical as well as emotional and verbal dexterity. They change personalities with breathtaking speed. The play is mounted without the scenic props and costume changes common to a major company's productions. Yet director Doug Hughes staging is dynamic from the moment the actors enter from the stage. Scott Pask's deceptively simple but complex set is dominated by a circular platform. Costumer Catherine Zuber's single gray and black outfit for each actor effectively supports the coming together of the disparate stories. The ubiquitous dialect coach Stephen Gabis deserves a hand for helping the actors to sound authentic no matter what accent is called for. The single act's many non-stop mini scenes feature three major breaks announced by the titles of "Encoding, Storing"and "Retrieving." These breaks are choreographed by movement director Peter Pucci. His having the actors regroup by fast walking, almost racing, around that circular platform works well and provides an unusual extra credit as Dance Captain for Heather Lind. However, the addition of a rather frantic hand movement routine seems pointless and pretentious. If you liked Constellations, you'll be glad Mr. Payne is back with another clever brain teaser. And given this excellent production and acting ensemble he's sure to win some new fans. That said, however, Incognito isn't quite as emotionally engaging as his Constellation or another currently running science themed play, Lucy Prebble's The Effect. I was just about to conclude this review by expressing my hope that Incognito that Mr. Payne won't rely on this format to a point where it will come off as gimmicky when an email arrived from our London critic. And there went my planned ending for attached was her review of his latest play,Elegy . It's theme is once again scientific, and its plot non-linear — but no zig-zagging multiple role playing by the characters. For links and summaries to other science and math related plays we've reviewed, check out our Science Plays Page . |
Search CurtainUp in the box below PRODUCTION NOTES Incognito by Nick Payne Directed by Doug Hughes. Cast: Geneva Carr, Charlie Cox, Heather Lind, Morgan Spector Sets: Scott Pask Costumes: Catherine Zuber Lighting: Ben Stanton Original music and Sound: David Van Tieghem Fight director: J. David Brimmer Movement director:, Peter Pucci Dialect coach: Stephen Gabis Stage Manager:Vanessa Coakley Running Time: Approximate 90 minutes, no intermission. (The ushers informed audiences entering the theater that it was 85 minutes but the performance I attended ran five minutes longer than the announced 90 minutes in my press release. Manhattan Theater Club City Center Stage 1 131 W. 55th Street From 5/03/16; opening 5/24/16; closing 7/10/16. Reviewed by Elyse sommer at 5/20 press preview REVIEW FEEDBACK Highlight one of the responses below and click "copy" or"CTRL+C"
Paste the highlighted text into the subject line (CTRL+ V): Feel free to add detailed comments in the body of the email. . .also the names and emails of any friends to whom you'd like us to forward a copy of this review. For a feed to reviews and features as they are posted at http://curtainupnewlinks.blogspot.com to your reader Curtainup at Facebook . . . Curtainup at Twitter Subscribe to our FREE email updates: E-mail: esommer@curtainup.com put SUBSCRIBE CURTAINUP EMAIL UPDATE in the subject line and your full name and email address in the body of the message. If you can spare a minute, tell us how you came to CurtainUp and from what part of the country. |
