Current Repertory
Incognito
by Nick Payne
Premiere: 29.05.2021
Duration: 1 h 50 min / Pause: No
40 lei
Project achieved within the programme Open Doors to Everyone
To what extent can the brain determine our level of intelligence, memory, behaviour, affectivity? Who are we and what makes us who we are? For those interested in the depths of the human brain, but also in our deeper ignorance, the Bucharest National Theatre presents the show Incognito by Nick Payne (a project within the "Open Doors for All" Programme).
One of the most famous young English playwrights and screenwriters, Nick Payne is equally passionate about science, the press nicknaming the playwright "Mr. Science ". After the international success with the play "Constellations", whose main character was quantum mechanics, in Incognito, the protagonist, a very fickle and unpredictable one, is the human brain. Made up of several interwoven episodes, like multiple universes in a non-linear evolution, Incognito presents three stories, two of them inspired by real facts. The first talks about the theft of Albert Einstein's brain, the second presents the case of a pianist who, following an experimental brain operation, loses his short-term memory; the third, fictional, focuses on Martha, a neuropsychologist, who tries to know herself while probing the minds of her patients.
Under the direction of director Zsuzsanna Kovacs and in the scenography of Corina Boboc, Monica Davidescu, Aylin Cadîr, Ovidiu Cuncea and Lari Giorgescu achieve an extraordinary acting performance, playing over 20 parts, passing intelligently from one character to another, in an imaginary journey through the labyrinth of the human brain. Because, in Einstein’s words, “imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited."
Translated by Simona Nichiteanu
"In my mind right now, when I try to draw a conclusion after seeing the NTB performance, one of the ideas I can put forward is the following: Nick Payne's "Incognito" offers the audience the opportunity to encounter marvellous acting performances throughout a performance in which anecdote, stereotype and the at first glance inscrutable connections conceived by the author are unspeakably clever. And those who dare to participate in the staging of this play need a lot of soul. It is precisely what Payne lacks in this text. But that's the way it is when you have a lot on your mind."
Horia Ghibuțiu, Zile și nopți – Diary of a Bucharest Citizen: The Mind Games of "Incognito" at NTB
“Director Zsuzsanna Kovács, who has taken on this ambitious, double-edged project, has created a minimalist performance with the help of set designer Corina Boboc in which the everyday is desolate in its banality and the technical has usurped the soul. The four actors, Monica Davidescu, Aylin Cadîr, Ovidiu Cuncea and Lari Giorgescu each give a tour de force, sliding in time and space, from character to character, a performance for which they deserve applause”.
Alexandra Ares, Liternet - In Incognito, the brain is the protagonist of a fragmented psychological thriller
Translated by Simona Nichiteanu
Trailer
Monica Davidescu, Aylin Cadîr, Ovidiu Cuncea, Lari Giorgescu
Monica Davidescu
Aylin Cadîr
Ovidiu Cuncea
Lari Giorgescu, Aylin Cadîr
Monica Davidescu, Aylin Cadîr
Monica Davidescu, Ovidiu Cuncea
Aylin Cadîr, Lari Giorgescu
Lari Giorgescu
Ovidiu Cuncea, Lari Giorgescu
Ovidiu Cuncea, Lari Giorgescu, Monica Davidescu, Aylin Cadîr
