Nick Payne's Incognito premieres at HighTide 2014

Nick Payne will premiere his latest, Incognito, a new play about the human brain, at next year’s HighTide festival. The eighth annual festival, which runs from 10 to 19 April 2014 in the small Suffolk town of Halesworth, includes three other new plays, including the previously-announced UK premiere of American Dan LeFranc’s The Big Meal, directed by former Royal Shakespeare Company artistic director Michael Boyd.

Payne’s other plays include the Evening Standard Award-winning Constellations and The Same Deep Water as Me, seen earlier this year at the Donmar Warehouse. Incognito, a co-production with High Tide, nabokov and Live Theatre Newcastle, is directed by nabokov artistic director Joe Murphy and, following its world premiere at High Tide, transfers to Newcastle and the North Wall in Oxford.

Nick Payne said: "The human brain is the only material in the universe which can come up with and execute tests about not only the universe but also itself. I find the brain endlessly fascinating and constantly baffling. As such, I wanted to write a play about it."

Commenting on LeFranc’s play, which premieres at Theatre Royal Bath ahead of High Tide, Michael Boyd said: “The Big Meal is brave, playful, open hearted, and true. Dan LeFranc has created infinite space in a nutshell for this dark comedy about the frailties and mortality of one extended family, and he tells the tale with elegant simplicity and theatrical wit. It's a great play for this inspiring Festival.”

The Big Meal is Boyd’s first production since leaving the RSC last year.

The two other new plays in the High Tide 2014 line-up are: Peddling, written and performed by Harry Melling and directed by High Tide artistic director Steven Atkinson, which post-Suffolk transfers to New York’s 59E59 from 22 April for four weeks; and The Girl’s Guide to Saving the World, the professional debut from Elinor Cook, who won the 2013 George Devine Award for Most Promising Playwright.

See Also: Former RSC boss Michael Boyd returns to director's chair with Bath's American season