Total recall

You Remember The Stories You Wish Were True

Project Arts Centre

****

Megan Riordan lost everything when a storage facility sold her belongings. Now she must try to get the memories back. Making Strange's production is compartmentalised brilliantly: a lecture section about the neurological explanations of memory; a monologue recalling the story; songs that touch on the subject matter; a visual recreation of memory mapping; a sit-down reflection on what is gone and what stays; and video evidence of recollections.

Reflection, recollection, and the struggle with both are an internal audience experience that run in parallel with Riordan’s. Questioning what we remember, what is acquired, and whether either matters, resonates deeply, stimulating the very neural pathways being examined.

A play about memory begs to be vague, yet Dodd Loomis and Megan Riordan achieve outstanding clarity of thought and precision editing. Tight, toned, and confidently executed, You Remember . . . is an extremely succinct approach to a complex subject, even if the name is quite hard to . . . remember.

Ends Sept 13th