Hamlet, traumatised by his family's misdemeanours, described men as a "quintessence of dust". Some 350 years on, Francis Crick decided this was much too poetic: we are, concluded the scientist who co-discovered the structure of DNA, a bundle of neurons. Both figures cast their shadow over On Ego, an engrossing play by Mick Gordon and the neuropsychologist Paul Broks that peers into human minds and suggests that, no matter how rationally science is now able to explain existence, the construction of feelings such as love and pain remains as unfathomable as ever.
On Ego is the kind of show that makes much other theatre look shallow. Technically it's canny: in one scene, the face of the main character, Alex, fragments and re-forms as voiceovers replicate the fractured procession of thoughts in his brain. More impressive, though, is the way the narrative doesn't just grapple with complex questions about the nature of self, ego and consciousness, but is driven by them.
Alex, a neurologist, is convinced that there is no self; faced with his imminent mortality, however, he proves to be as seduced as the next man by the idea of his own uniqueness. Alice, his wife, discovers she has a brain tumour; her mental disintegration is distressing to witness, not least as it exposes feelings she was once able to hide. Underlying everything is a celebration of theatre itself: in Alex's assessment, "the human being is a story-telling machine", and where better to tell those stories than on stage?
Gordon crams so much material into his 90 minutes, it's almost impossible to process it all. But the clarity of his staging, and the ease of the performances, particularly from Elliot Levey as Alex, prevent even the toughest scientific ideas from alienating the audience. Science and emotion meld so successfully that you leave the theatre feeling less like a bundle of neurons than a king of infinite space.
· Until January 7. Box office: 0870 429 6883.
