What is it that makes us us? Is it the DNA we inherit? Or something more? Can we ever escape our genetic programming? David Ree is an Englishman (so English, he can't even order a cup of coffee in French), whose French father fled Paris to escape a most unusual family curse: causing the deaths of French intellectuals in traffic accidents. Now Ree, a scientist trying to understand the purpose of junk DNA (the bits that appear to carry no genetic code), goes to Paris for a conference, taking his elderly father, who is suffering from the inherited disease Huntington's Chorea. When his father goes missing, Ree's sense of self is thrown into confusion and he is forced to map his own inheritance through the streets of Paris.
Billed as "a genetic detective thriller" and constructed with the cunning of a cryptic crossword, this latest piece from the multimedia company Lightwork is a hugely enjoyable mixture of head and heart, text and visuals wrapped in an atmospheric and stylish production that reeks of European chic tempered with an English fastidiousness and taste for strong, intelligent text.
There are times when the whole thing feels over-constructed and a little too cold - as if it can't quite locate its own heart. As you might expect from a piece that gleefully links contemporary genetics with the deaths of Ernest Chausson, the symbolist composer, Pierre Curie, the co-discoverer of radium, and Roland Barthes, founding father of structuralism, this is a show that is very full of itself. But there is something rather lovable about its precociousness - not least because the cleverness is always playful, and the melding of film and live action in the manner of a cash-strapped Lepage or Complicite is something to show off about.
·Until October 31. Box office: 020-7609 1800.
