★★★☆☆
Frantic Assembly’s brand-new production, Lost Atoms, tells a modern love story through inventive and groundbreaking physical theatre.
Written by Bruntwood Prize 2013 winner Anna Jordan (Succession, Killing Eve), Lost Atoms began development when Frantic Assembly’s Artistic Director, Scott Graham, invited Jordan to take on “the opportunity to write about falling in love.” The play was commissioned and produced by Frantic Assembly in co-production with Curve, Mayflower Southampton, and Lyric Hammersmith Theatre – a collaboration that speaks to the scale and ambition of the piece.
A couple jumping forwards and backwards through time, Jess (Hannah Sinclair Robinson) and Robbie (Joe Layton) retell their love story, revealing the secrets and shared histories tucked away in the back of their memories. As they slip in and out of moments from past to present, they question what actually happened – probing to uncover the truth of their relationship.
Lost Atoms is a two-hander, two-act piece, split between the initial love story and the aftermath. Filing cabinet drawers tower at the back of the stage, opening and closing instantaneously as the couple scale the walls, retrieve props, and change costumes. It is an impressive contraption (designed by Andrzeg Goulding) – and an even more impressive feat of planning, just to remember which drawer hides what. The entryway in the middle of the set transforms into a moving platform, allowing the couple to be suspended in the air. It often represents a bed – a symbol of intimacy and the emotional highs of their relationship, with Jess and Robbie draped across each other, entangled midair.
The first act paints, in vivid detail, Jess and Robbie’s meeting and the formation of their connection – exploring their flaws, interests, careers, family tensions, and insecurities, all told in bright, physical Frantic fashion. However, the drama takes some time to build; the act feels slightly overdrawn, with the stakes only becoming fully apparent in the second act.
The second act, by contrast, is where the production truly soars. Without giving too much away, Jess and Robbie experience a devastating event that puts their relationship on the rocks. Lost Atoms concludes figuratively, with the characters exploring their future together, or apart, opening containers and holding up shining lightbulbs that reveal potential endings – a yearning to end their stories as one. This section is heartbreaking, raw, and the highlight of the piece, offering the emotional intensity that the first act hints at but never fully achieves.
Still, Frantic Assembly and Anna Jordan deliver a delightful portrayal of modern love – one infiltrated by technology, and defining how transient yet all consuming love can be.
Lost Atoms runs at Lowry (Quays Theatre) until November 15 2025 and tours the UK until February 28 2026.
Photo: ©Tristram Kenton
JADAR 