After taking me onto the stage and showing me the set of Mnemonic in preparation for opening night, I had the pleasure of spending some time with Louis Rogers, the director. His insights shed light onto the creativity behind the world, or rather, worlds, of Mnemonic.

It is difficult to provide a succinct summary but Rogers briefly comments on the overarching storyline: “the play is based around the relationship of Alice and Virgil. Whilst Virgil remains in London, Alice journeys across Europe, seeking to find her long-lost father who may still be alive.” Parallel to this storyline is the discovery of Otzi, preserved for millennia in the timeless capsule of Alpine ice. In Rogers’ opinion, the “hints of mystery” arising from this storyline complement the complex psychological topics that Mnemonic attempts to explore.

Although much of the plot remains a secret, Rogers assures me that the diverging storylines do find each other during the play and what is lost in the initial confusion is gained twofold at the conclusion, when the different worlds converge and a sense of closure is granted to the audience.

When asked why he decided to get involved in the production, the director shared the many reasons that sparked his interest: “Mnemonic is a very innovative play in that it has allowed us to extend our creativity and use the space in the ADC differently.

“It isn’t a blockbuster,” he says, “so putting it on should be very interesting.” With motifs that would usually be suited to the intimacy of the Corpus Playroom, the cast and crew of Mnemonic seek to impress their audiences by exploiting the variety of technical features available to them in this setting.

Rodgers’ emphasis on how the play brings forward the personal aspect makes this production all the more intriguing. “The fact that the play wasn’t originally scripted but devised  through improvisational theatre and experimentation”, he tells me, “made the production process all the more challenging.” The director speaks of Complicite, the British theatre company famous for its very visual theatre through the use of projections and other technical effects.

Is this what is to be expected from their production? “Since we had little to work with, we really had to make the production our own”, Louis confirms. This task was made easier by being able to relate to the characters and their dilemmas. “Finding personal connections in the details of the play," he explains, was key to conceptualising the end result of their rehearsals, all coming together after copious hours spent visualising how to stage the final product.

Mnemonic is certainly an ambitious play; its exploration of “the things we remember and the way in which we remember them”, combined with its use of “visually striking” imagery, even wielding different languages and cultures, shows how this show is set to make audiences contemplate their own psyche, their past and their memory.

The stories within the play, which intertwine realism with storybook fantasy, along with some humour too, aspire to appeal to each member of the audience in their own personal way. This production is most definitely shaping up to be one of the theatre highlights of this term.

Mnemonic runs from Tuesday 17th to Saturday 21st May at 7:45pm at the ADC Theatre.