Christopher Gray on the play getting rave reviews coming to the North Wall

The North Wall is consolidating its reputation as a supplier of the best in new drama with a five-day run next week of the latest play — already the subject of rave reviews — from award-winning writer Nick Payne.

Incognito, like some previous work by the high-flying Payne, introduces a scientific element into the action as he explores the question of what it means to be human.

Woven into the play are three stories that explore the nature of identity and how we are defined by what we remember.

In Princeton, New Jersey, in 1955, Thomas Stoltz Harvey performed the autopsy of the recently deceased Albert Einstein and then stole his brain. In Bath, England, in 1953, Henry underwent pioneering brain surgery, changing Henry’s life, and the history of neuroscience, forever. In present day London, England, Martha is a clinical neuropsychologist. When her marriage breaks down she starts to make some radically different choices.

Nick Payne won the 2012 Evening Standard Award for Best Play for Constellations which was seen at the Royal Court and later enjoyed a run in the West End. He was recently nomin-ated for an Olivier Award for his hit play The Same Deep Water As Me — on the unlikely topic of lawyers involved in shady claims for personal injury compensation — staged at the Donmar Warehouse.

His other plays include Wanderlust (Royal Court) and If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet which was staged at The Bush Theatre and later in New York with Jake Gyllenhall. His most recent play, Blurred Lines, opened in February at the National Theatre to unanimous four- and five-star reviews.

Incognito is directed by Joe Murphy, the artistic director of theatre company nabokov, who also directed Blink by Phil Porter which sold out at The North Wall in February. The play is produced by nabokov’s Paul Jellis. Paul is a founder of interactive theatre company Bad Physics.

The cast are Alison O’Donnell (Bush Theatre and Hull Truck), Paul Hickey (National Theatre, Royal Court and Donmar Warehouse), Amelia Lowdell (Royal Court and Royal Exchange, Manchester) and Sargon Yelda (RSC, National Theatre and Theatre503).

Lucy Maycock, the artistic director of the North Wall, said: “I am delighted to have this new play here. Nick Payne is a very impressive writer; witty, humane and intellectually challenging.

“It will make you think about how you think. It will also ask you to consider the enduring influence of love in our lives. With plenty for both the heart and the head, Incognito promises to be a fascinating evening of theatre.”

It has already been judged so by a raft of respected critics.

In a four-star review in the Guardian Michael Billington wrote: “Payne keeps us constantly engaged, both emotionally and intellectually. Behind the story lurks the question of the extent to which our identities are the product of accumulated memories, and whether there may even be something liberating about selective amnesia. I’d urge you to see a play that has something of the complex fascination of Caryl Churchill’s A Number.”

Eve Stebbing of the Daily Telegraph (again a four-star review) wrote: “The four magnificent actors 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.”

And the Observer’s Laura Barnett (four stars) stated: “We need more playwrights like Nick Payne. He is that rare thing: a writer whose substantial ambitions are matched by an acute understanding of the way people actually behave.”

The five-day run of Incognito is preceded at the North Wall by two days of some of the best in young people’s theatre.

This is supplied in the National Theatre Connections Festival.

Each year the National Theatre asks ten of the UK’s most dynamic playwrights to create new work for performances by young theatre companies all over the country.

The North Wall is hosting this exciting festival for the first time. Eight young companies from Oxford and as far afield as Thame, Pangbourne and High Wycombe will be staging their own versions of these plays over the course of a weekend. The festival cele-brates great new writing for the stage — and the energy, commitment and talent of young theatre-makers. The best groups will be selected to perform at the National Theatre itself in July.

Performances take place on Saturday and Sunday at various times from 11am. Day pass: £6, £5 concessions.

Incognito
The North Wall, Oxford
Tuesday to Saturday 8pm with 2.30pm Saturday
01865 319450 or northwall.com