Incognito

Put your thinking caps on and get ready for a real brainteaser as four actors play 21 characters in three interconnected stories.

Written by Nick Payne and directed by Brendan Ellis at Melville Theatre, Incognito explores the brain, memory and self and asks if our brains play games, tricking us to believe different things at various times.

Three mysterious storylines involve the theft of Albert Einstein’s brain, a man who has lived the same day for 60 years and a modern woman who has come to a crossroads in the middle of her life.

“Incognito takes three stories and brings them together into one breathtaking whole that asks whether memory and identity are nothing but illusion,” Ellis said.

“The four actors play four to six characters each over the course of 30 scenes, with some scene changes lasting less than a second.

“We also jump forward and backward in time over the three different storylines, so there are several challenges in conveying all of that to the audience.”

Acting for the past 15 years, Ellis has appeared in numerous productions with Stirling, Playlovers and Limelight Theatres, ARENAarts and Fringe World.

He started directing in 2010 and has won a variety of awards for his productions of A Conversation, Ninety, The One Day of the Year, Cloudstreet and Constellations, also by Nick Payne.

“I chose to direct Incognito because the show is modern, heart-breaking and unlike most other shows produced in Perth theatre,” Ellis said.