Photo credit: Ellie Kurttz
The Nature of Forgetting is a non-verbal physical theatre and mime production created and directed by Guillaume Pigé and London-based company, Theatre Re. The story follows Tom and his experience of dementia. In a single act, the story of his life and love unfolds.
This high energy physical theatre piece does not rely on dialogue for the telling of the story. Instead, the vocals are presented as realistic, simple speech, which serves as an undertone to the physical nature of the piece. The use of vibrating music reverbs through the audience to support the fractured and distorted nature of Tom’s memories.
Guillaume Pigé portrays Tom with such clarity that his transitions from childhood memories, his current situation as the confused shell of the man he was; and all of his important moments in between, are clear and distinct. The frustration and despair is felt as he fails to grasp his memories as they dance and fracture in front of him.
Luna Tosin, as both Tom’s wife and daughter, captures the innocence of a first crush to the delivering of the news a baby is on the way with delight. Claudia Marciano and Calum Littley support as Tom’s mother and friends, punctuating the memories with character and humour.
The set centres around a square of a main stage and two clothes rails holding the clothing of the ages and characters contained within the memories. Additional school desks and chairs are moved and shifted deliberately, yet subtly, often forming an aspect of the distorted memories but always with purpose and perfect timing. The cast are in view for the duration of the performance in a Brechtian style where we see them maintaining roles whilst waiting in the visible wings.
Lighting (Ross Hayward) is used to support the key moments in the drama, highlighting the isolation felt by Tom. Due to the pace and physicality of the performance, there are occasional moments of missed emotion which would have delivered greater moments of sentiment.
The Nature of Forgetting is a beautiful piece of theatre which addresses the issue of memory loss by exploring what is left once memory is gone. Demonstrating expertise with physical theatre and capturing an ordinary life though memories.
**** Four stars
Reviewed by: Leanne Walpole