Mnemonic
The following is a review written for the Leopard magazine of Mnemonic, performed at the National Theatre in the 2024 Summer, by devising practitioner Complicite.
Standing outside the National Theatre on the south bank of the Thames, the A-Level Drama cohort eagerly discussed our expectations for the return of Complicité's production of Mnemonic after 25 years. Going into the show with very little knowledge of the practitioner and even less of what it might actually be about, I was extremely excited.
The play discussed the theme of memory – what it was, what it meant to us, whether it was distinguishable from imagination – this was woven beautifully through the blended stories of the frozen corpse of a Neolithic man and a woman trying to trace her late father's journey across Europe. With the ideas of migration, ancestry, and what impact one has on the world, the audience was shown just how vital memory is.
The performance began with the actor who went on to play the lead role talking to the audience about the science of memory, before everyone put an eye mask on – before we were even aware his speech had ended, and the play had begun, the house lights were off, and the audience was ready to have both their hearts and brains gripped by the story and themes.
The play was thrillingly existential and provoking, with a beautiful plot and multiple intertwining storylines – the small cast expertly multi-rolled to create something unbelievably memorable.
We are privileged at Skinners' to have so many opportunities given to us by Mrs Kirk and Miss Hill to watch live theatre throughout the year in some of the best London theatres – thank you especially to Mrs Kirk for taking this hopefully well-behaved group of grateful students on this occasion to a performance I will remember (fittingly) and be inspired by for a long time.
https://www.complicite.org/work/mnemonic/<br>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97rBf_WJ2Tk<br>
Here are two additional links to Complicite's own page on the production - the video is a particularly powerful and engaging watch.
Complicites devising style used the two separate narratives expertly to show the theme of memory in two different ways. They used direct address to the audience from various in character actors which was really powerful, immersive and educative. The audience interaction was really provoking and made it so much more engaging by thinking about your own capacity for personal memory and your heritage or history. The puppet of the iceman created from the chair of the woman's father was so well crafted and a really powerful symbol of memory through other aids like objects, how one object may mean many different things, of how one may use imagination to give meaning in the form of a memory to an object (all of these ideas being previously foreshadowed in the direct address monologue at the beginning by actor Khalid Abdalla who went on to play the lead role of Omar. The voiceovers used (especially in the phone calls) were so precise in timing and effective, and isolated Omar from the other characters he was speaking to so that he became the focal point at the start of the story. Through his research and knowledge of the iceman, parallels were drawn between the two (character and historical moment). The overlapping plots were told expertly with these tools and communicated the ideas amazingly.
https://www.dramaandtheatre.co.uk/content/lesson-plans/practitioner-focus-complicite<br>
This article goes into further detail on the devising style of Complicite. This is ChatGPT's summary of the page.
Complicité's devising style involves storytelling, physical theatre, multimedia, and collaboration with various artists. Their work is influenced by Jacques Lecoq's mime and physical theatre techniques. Theatrical tools used by Complicité include puppets, masks, montage, direct address, voiceovers, experimental lighting, sound, and video. They often employ a visually rich stage language and tightly choreographed movements, emphasizing a collective and collaborative creative process.