Complicite's Mnemonic- National Theatre

Fabulous show, one of their very best. It'll be interesting to see how McBurney approaches it after, what a quarter of a century, and a new cast.

Does anyone know about the "front stalls" section for Mnemonic at all? Currently not available to book, but they will be added at a later date.

I’d ring the box office and ask about the front seats, when/if they will go on sale.

£20 front stalls seats on sale for performances until 06/07

Does anyone know was the front stalls are being sold as restricted? Even the ones that are further back? Are these all additional rows being added?

Usually, front 3 rows are Ryan Air class at £20. The rake begin after that, as do arm rests and higher prices.

This is really helpful. Thanks for posting!

Very annoying, even more so no effort to rebook or anything. Just a credit and a sort yourself out.

Has anyone managed to see this yet? I'm in tonight.

Incredible. Up there with Elephant Vanishes and Measure in terms of simon mcburney brilliance.

Some stunning stage pictures but it's quite a small show, I wonder how it looks from the back of the circle

I LOVED it. Its equal parts lecture and drama, but for me, those parts blend together beautifully and meaningfully.

Its probably not as surprising as it once was because of Complicité's other works, and other works inspired by them, having played since.

Some spoilers follow. . .

I mean, I saw a show called "This Much I Know" at Hampstead Downstairs this last December, in which Esh Alladi starts by giving a lecture, when he discovers that his other half, Natalie Klamar, has disappeared mysteriously on an odyssey across Europe in search of her identity, and at the time, I recall this structure being described as "original" in the reviews.

So forgive my sense of deja vu when this show starts with Khalid Abdalla giving a lecture, when he discovers that a character he plays, Omar's other half, Eileen Walsh, has disappeared mysteriously on an odyssey across Europe in search of her identity.

Coincidence maybe? Inspired by the ideas in this show, more likely, though of course ideas are not copyrightable, so there's no legal issue here lol. Its just that I'm obviously not as surprised by the structure of this show as I would have been 25 years ago. Particularly because I've seen lots of other Complicite shows as well.

And Robert LePage shows too, which also typically involve travel and immigration and subtitles and links between people.

Anyhow, for me, the returning cast members from the original 1999 show, Tim McMullen, Richard Katz and Kostas Philippoglou make the biggest and most pleasurable impact. McMullen's voice has long been one of my favourites, its sing-song fruity rhythm like an endless massage to the mind, so he's a great choice for anthropolgist Konrad Spindler (who I think he also played in 1999, and he's more the right age now lol), head of the 5,000 year old Iceman investigation team at Innsbruck University, whose lectures about the Iceman and his discovery are one key focus of the show. Richard Katz is hilarious in a late role as another particularly pernickety anthropolgist, but its in his interactions with Eileen Walsh's world-wandering woman that he has the biggest ball of a time, making for some of the most engaging moments of the dramatic part of the show. And Kostas Philippoglou is also massively entertaining as an omnipresent Greek Taxi Driver "from Cockfosters," who exclaims to Khalil Abdalla, an Egyptian "from Brockley", "Whatever happened to the Ancient World?" lol.

Newbies, Eileen Walsh (the driver of the dramatic bits) and Khalid Abdalla (the driver of the lecture bits) are also a wonderful addition to the show, with Walsh making us feel the hysterical desire of a woman who feels lost without history, and Abdalla making us feel that learning some history can be entertaining rather than boring.

Anyhow, the show gets us personally involved (I found this bit moving) in the most mild manner possible, by having us open a pouch on our seats and interact with it; the show gets us uninvolved in trying to photograph stage nudity (Would anyone actually do this? Don't answer lol!) by bagging our phone for the duration; and all in all, I found that the show was profoundly moving, and especially worthwhile too in an age where the mere term "immigration" sparks conniptions, by pointing out connections between all people, everywhere, all over.

4 and a half stars from me.