In collaboration with the Alzheimer’s Society and Neuroscience Professor Kate Jeffery, Theatre Re bring a heart warming and breaking tale of dementia in physical theatre form.

Based in one of the Pleasance Courtyard’s biggest spaces, the stage is taken up by a skeleton stage, with all the props, costumes, staging for ever changing scenes on bare display. Throughout the production, changes in costume and set happen in front of our eyes, bringing a no-secrets and vulnerable view to the production, perfect for such a touching and vulnerable tale.

The Nature of Forgetting is the story of Tom, 55 years old, living with dementia. As his birthday approaches, he is soon triggered into viewing past memories and reliving his former years. This includes childhood all the way to the present, with relationships with his mother, his budding romance with his school sweetheart and the birth of their daughter and his best friend throughout all this time.

On a square piece of platform is where the majority of the action takes place. Supported by a live band at the back, little speech is heard but perhaps the occasional name or murmur of interaction. This is mostly physical theatre and dance and is very high energy. It is beautiful and fluid and happens so effortlessly. It is playful and highly interactive between the performers. It clearly and artfully tells Tom’s tale, with plenty of room for simple interpretation. As any physical theatre or dance requires, there are feats and movements that are only possible through brilliant skill but somehow are made to look completely easy. They do this and successfully evoke the roller coaster of emotion we feel through the highs and lows of Tom’s life.

While the performance needed a big-ish stage and was highly popular, therefore needing plenty of seating, it felt a little lost in this space. No matter how big the performers movements, it felt a little diminished in such a large space. The beginning began with Tom and his daughter, not mic’ed up (and usually I am actually against mics anyway) but their vocal interaction, no matter how brief, got lost in the vastness.

The Nature of Forgetting is a touching and heart breaking tale of dementia, the ease of confusion and how it can propel one into the past, all elements that people with dementia likely experience. It takes us through the love and loss through a normal life and one affected by dementia and is energetically and effortlessly performed, resulting in a beautiful piece of work.