From a young age, Noelle Brown knew something was amiss. Her light skin and red hair stood out in a family with dark hair and sallow complexions. Told early on by loving parents that she was adopted, Brown decides as an adult to track down her birth mother and uncover the circumstances that prompted her being given up for adoption.

Co-written with Michéle Forbes, this two-woman show casts Brown as a sort of private detective hunting down clues and following up leads. The plot unfolds in a series of missives from Brown’s adopted Aunt Patty (played with great vivacity by Bríd Ní Neachtain) and those who knew her natural mother Mary. But unlike a pulp murder mystery where the hard-nosed P.I. finally puts all the clues together and uncovers the truth, the question of why Mary gave up Noelle remains frustratingly out of reach.

Forbes and Brown’s writing is active and taut, placing us squarely in Brown’s shoes as she discovers tantalizing details about Mary’s life, but never the full picture. Director Conor Hanratty keeps the staging simple but dynamic, and his actors’ performances restrained and engaging. Conleth White’s lighting and projections cast the perfect ghostly glow in establishing different states and settings, and Maree Kearns sparse set utilises the subtlest details (two gray chairs, a massive parchment-like backdrop) in bringing texture to the playing space. This is a haunting retrospective that makes you question the family history written on your face and buried in your genes

Star rating: ★★★★