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Authors
Mick Gordon
and Paul Broks
Director
Mick Gordon
Cast
Alex
Elliott Levey
Alice
Kate Miles
Derek
Robin Soans
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Soho Theatre
until
7 Jan 2006 |
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Hamlet,
traumatised by his family's
misdemeanours, describes life
as a "quintessence of
dust". Some 350 years
on, Francis Crick decided
this was much too poetic:
we are, concluded the scientist
who co-discovered the structure
of DNA, a bundle of neurons.
Both figures cast their shadow
over On
Ego,
an engrossing piece by Mick
Gordon and the neuro-psychologist
Paul Broks. The play peers
into human minds and suggests
that, no matter how science
is now able to explain existence,
the construction of feelings
such as love and pain remains
as unfathomable as ever.
Alex, a neurologist, is professionally
convinced that there is no
inner self, no ghost in the
machine. Faced with the prospect
of being put to death, however,
he becomes seduced by the
idea of his own uniqueness.
Alice, his wife, discovers
she has a brain tumour; her
mental disintegration is distressing
to witness, not least as it
exposes feelings she was once
able to hide. Her father,
Derek, is an apparently humourless
scientist who, as becomes
movingly clear later in the
play, has had his own brush
with mortality and identity.
On
Ego
is the first production in
Mick Gordon's new concept
theatre group, On Theatre.
(The On
On Ego
is the first production of
Mick Gordon's new concept
theatre group, On Theatre.
The next is to be called 'On
Religion' (on which Gordon
is working with A. C. Grayling).
On
Ego
is in some ways self-consciously
didactic: the title is that
of an essay; it opens with
a lecture; and even though
it moves from the lecture
theatre to a sort of old-fashioned
futurism akin to Tarkovsky's
Solaris,
it is ultimately a dramatic
working out of academic conceptual
conundrums. But it works as
drama in its own right, stimulating
the viewer to ponder and discuss
the questions raised. The
narrative grapples with, and
is driven by, complex questions
about the nature of self,
ego and consciousness. And
the themes are manifested
in technically canny ways:
in one scene, the face of
the main character, Alex,
fragments and re-forms as
voiceovers replicate the fractured
procession of thoughts in
his brain. Underlying everything
is a celebration of theatre
itself: in Alex's assessment,
"the human being is a
story-telling machine",
and where better to tell those
stories than on stage?
Gordon crams so much material
into his 90 minutes, it's
almost impossible to process
it all. But the clarity of
his staging, and the ease
of the performances, particularly
from Elliot Levey as Alex,
prevent even the toughest
scientific ideas from alienating
the audience. Science and
emotion mingle so successfully
that you leave the theatre
feeling that you are not a
bundle of neurons, not perhaps
a troubled prince, but at
least a member of the human
race.
Maya
Lester and James Flynn |
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