Plaques and Tangles, Royal Court *****

I am still shaking and am brought to tears from Nicola Wilson's play about early onset Althzeimers. It is a truly remarkable quality in a production to bring an audience to tears and be so engrossed in a piece of fiction and I am amazed every single time drama does it to me. Wilson has created a superb insight into Meghan's life with fragmented memories and jumbled or misconstrued information that confuses you. Lucy Morrison stages this fluid and haunting production with a clinical, if-not special design from Andree D Edwards. The performances, however, are what set this drama apart from the rest. Alice Felgate and Ted Reilly are wonderful as the concerned children whilst Vanessa Babirye is an understanding but intimidated love interest of Ned. Monica Dolan is sensational as Megan. The intellectual and forceful character shown in her younger self (portrayed well by Rosalind Eleazar) regressing to a child-like shell of a person is deeply traumatic to witness due to an engaging and truly exceptional portrayal of this delicately constructed character. The rest of the cast are fantastic as well. The past twelve months have seen some of the best new drama produced at the upstairs space and this piece from a new playwright stands out of the multiple superb productions as something truly special.