LOST ATOMS
Lyric Hammersmith
★★★★
“Sometimes quirky, often heartbreaking, but invariably mesmerising”
‘Your future self is watching you right now through your memories’. The quotation, which has wormed its way into meme status on social media, can be traced back to biomedical scientist Aubrey de Grey, but any free thinker could probably come up with a similar truism. But it does make you think – and, as a concept, it forms the backbone of Anna Jordan’s two hander “Lost Atoms”. Jordan takes it a step further and has these future memories interrupting the present and correcting where necessary. The play sets out to show how a couple’s perspective of their relationship can alter over time thanks to the conflicting memories of each character. The effect is a slightly unnerving, quite brilliant and riveting watch.
The couple is Jess (Hannah Sinclair Robinson) and Robbie (Joe Layton). The microscopic lens through which we witness their story is echoed by Andrzej Goulding’s striking set comprising a towering wall of filing cabinets, which plays with our perception of space as much as the narrative plays with time. Many times, we feel as though we are looking down from above as the back wall becomes the floor. Director Scott Graham has Sinclair Robinson and Layton crawl across the banks of drawers that slide in and out, defying gravity with ease. This is true ‘Frantic Assembly’ at its finest.
Step away from the main concept and its stylised representation, and what you have is a fairly conventional love story, albeit one with unexpectedly sad twists. The two performances are outstanding. There is an instant connection between Sinclair Robinson and Layton, further welded by a smouldering chemistry. The dialogue is easy going and often humorous until, of course, things go wrong. The second act finds us in darker territory – audible gasps can sometimes be heard from the auditorium. It seems that no stone is left unturned, as we draw closer to the love story’s conclusion, unearthing original thoughts on the themes of grief, loss, pregnancy, marriage, fidelity, aging. Other characters are skilfully introduced and made real through the silent gaps of one-sided conversations. Jess and Robbie are the only ones speaking but we can clearly hear the whole conversation in our heads.
But some of the strongest moments are the wordless ones, when the couple’s natural intimacy progresses to deep sensuality during moments of abstract choreography. With Simisolar Majekodunmi’s stark and shadowy lighting and Julie Blake’s atmospheric music, the actors again pay no attention to gravity. A bed unfolds like a drawbridge at an impossibly steep angle while the actors move with the vertiginous ease of geckos. The cabinet drawers contain not just props and costumes, but metaphors that are pulled out at pivotal moments to enhance the narrative flow.
Eventually talk turns to hopes for the future, which in turn blur into the couple’s memories. It seems that their dreams are as untrustworthy and insubstantial as their memories. Our memories often betray us, we are being told. “Fairy tales are bullshit” Jess exclaims. Jordan has given us a haunting perspective of a relationship’s arc. The only real flaw is that it does stretch it out somewhat, making for quite a long play, and a couple of scenes are difficult to follow acoustically – never mind the atoms; occasionally the actors’ words are lost in the soft-spoken moments of truth. Yet it is beautifully poetic and insightful. Messy at times. Sometimes quirky, often heartbreaking, but invariably mesmerising. Memory might be unreliable, but “Lost Atoms” is unforgettable.
LOST ATOMS
Lyric Hammersmith
Reviewed on 3rd February 2026
by Jonathan Evans
Photography by Tristram Kenton
