INNOVATIVE York company Mind Over Matter Theatre Collective are bringing their revival of Mick Gordon’s thought-provoking play On Ego back to their home city for two nights.

"This summer we took our re-imagined production to the Edinburgh Fringe, where Broadway Baby gave us five stars and called On Ego a 'towering work of theatrical achievement', while The List gave us four stars and told readers we had made 'something truly special...a beautifully delivered show'," says press officer Adam Bruce, ahead of tonight and tomorrow's 7.30pm performances in The Black Box at the University of York's Department of Theatre, Film and Television, Heslington East Campus.

"We're a group of graduates from that department, with a passion for giving heart to matters of the mind through moving, powerful pieces of physical multimedia theatre, and now we're bringing our acclaimed piece of multimedia theatre back to York to the university department where it was first produced in 2015.

"After this, On Ego looks set to continue touring to various venues around the country, but York is a special place for us and it's a privilege to be returning with the show. We can't wait to share our piece with new audiences in the city where we studied and took the first step on the road to our careers as theatre makers."

In his 85-minute play, Mick Gordon asks: "What are we? Skin, bone and one hundred billion brain cells? Or is there more to it? How does the darkness inside our skulls become a world of people and places, pleasure and pain, love and loss?"

York Press:

On Ego: "Mick Gordon's multimedia exploration of relationships, humanity and what it means to be unique"

Neuroscientist Alex, played by Oliver Henn, seems to have all the answers, but his wife, Alice (Yoshika Colwell), is suffering from a "butterfly glioma" that threatens to alter the very core of the woman he fell in love with. After an experiment goes wrong, under the stern gaze of Alice’s father, Derek (Harry Whittaker), he is forced to face the truth of his identity in Gordon's multimedia exploration of relationships, humanity and what it means to be unique.

On Ego is directed by Lauren Moakes, joined in the production team by movement director Amy Warren, composer Scott J Hurley, designer Anna Mawn, lighting designer Ella Dixon and visual co-ordinator Tom Leatherbarrow.

Mind Over Matter is a multimedia theatre collective formed by theatre and film graduates from the University of York's Theatre with skills in performance, choreography, film, design, and sound composition and an emphasis in their work on the thoughtful and the physical.

"The collective was born through a desire to give heart to matters of the mind: to provoke thought and unlock questions about shared human experience," says Adam. "Mind Over Matter are proud to be reviving On Ego after it was last performed for Gordon’s company On Theatre at the Soho Theatre in London in 2005."

On Ego's revival comes in the wake of the January 2016 premiere of Mind Over Matter's latest original work, A Matter of Love, at the Etcetera Theatre, Camden, London. "That production demonstrated the company’s passionate commitment to creating their own physical language within their productions that uses human relationships as a vector for accessing philosophical or psychological themes," says Adam.

Tickets are on sale at £8, students £5, online at store.york.ac.uk until 4.30pm each day or on the door for cash payments from 7.15pm if any tickets remain unsold.