Review: The Nature of Forgetting, Hackney Empire

Tom (Guillaume Pigé) is living with early onset dementia. The show opens as his daughter tries to prepare him to meet guests, to celebrate his birthday. She gently reminds him to put on his jacket, repeating the words slowly and carefully as he sits on a chair on the stage in front of a rack of clothes. As he’s left to negotiate the task – which appears beyond him – we are whisked into the swirling images of his mind, a patchwork of memories of his life from childhood to the present day. 

This almost wordless performance is part dance, part mime, with added pathos and passion provided by a live band. It’s a powerful expression of a mind which no longer flows in a straight line. The performers energetically move from memory to memory, arcing the sparse props over their heads as they whirl around the stage, adding and removing clothing from the clothes rail to take on the personalities of key characters in Tom’s life. 

We see broken scenes of him growing up, falling in love, becoming a father. One scene in a car is seen over and over again. There are some stand-out set pieces, such as a bike ride on which Tom and his teenage girlfriend flirt, race and revel in the exhilaration of being young and alive. But his confusion is always just below the surface, seeping through in different ways. The music deteriorates into dissonant sound. The performers freeze in tableaux mid action, or glitch and repeat movements. Tom pauses and repeats a sequence of movements so that, once more, motion is restored to the storyline.

This show is a brilliant piece of inventive, genre-bending theatre, balanced and timed to perfection, presented by four very able performers. The soundtrack created by Alex Judd provides a compelling backdrop to the expertly timed choreography on stage. The mainly bare stage acts as a metaphor for an emptying mind, with the actors rifling through the costumes as Tom rifles through his memories. 

This is the 10th anniversary season of the show, created and performed by the group Theatre Re. It’s no surprise to me that The Nature of Forgetting continues to fill venues. It has the timeless quality of a performance that connects to something fundamental in human nature. It’s energetic and exhilarating but also wistful and deeply moving, providing an empathetic window into life lived with a disintegrating mind.

Devised by Matthew Austin, Malik Ibheis, Chris Jones, Alex Judd, Fred McLaren, Keiran Pearson, Guillaume Pigé, Eygló Belafonte, Andres Velasquez, Louise Wilcox
Composed by Alex Judd
Lighting Design by Katherine Graham
Re-Lighter & Stage Manager: Ross Hayward
Sound Technician & Deputy Stage Manager: Benjamin Adams
Costume & Prop Design by Malik Ibheis
Dramaturg by A.C. Smith
Scientific Collaborator: Professor Kate Jeffery
External Curator: Andrew Visnevski

This show has ended its run at the Hackney Empire, but is touring the UK until 4 March 2027