Somehow, in the intimate setting of the Adelaide Festival Centre’s Space Theatre, these two tales cross millennia and borders to become interwoven in a way that is both intriguing and confusing.

The Oxford dictionary describes “mnemonic” as “of, or designed to aid, the memory”, and indeed memory is one of the key themes of this play – along with family and the chaotic interconnectivity of life’s journeys.

The play begins with lead actor Nick Pelomis (recently seen in the 2009 Adelaide Fringe show After the End) delivering an explanation of how memory works, with audience members asked to don an eye mask and fondle a maple leaf as part of a memory exercise.

Before long, Pelomis melds into the character of Virgil, moping about his house (mostly naked) and leaving ever more desperate messages on the mobile of his lover Alice (Lizzy Falkland), who has gone walkabout in Europe.

Then two climbers discover the corpse of the Ice Man – sometimes portrayed by a broken chair and sometimes by Pelomis (mostly naked) – on the Austrian-Italian border, sparking a frenzied quest by scientists and the media for answers to the mystery of this man who froze to death alone on an icy mountain all those centuries ago.

Somehow these two stories collide and overlap, just like our own journeys and memories. “Mnemonic questions our understanding of time, our capacity to distort history and our attempts to retell the past,” say the State Theatre’s notes for the production.

Pelomis and Falkland are supported by a cast comprising Antje Guenther, Rob Macpherson, Renato Musolino (who is particularly entertaining as the Greek taxi driver from Islington, London, bound for Melbourne, Australia), Andreas Sobik and Roman Vaculik, all of whom fill play roles requiring numerous different accents.

Mnemonic was originally conceived by Simon McBurney and devised by the theatre company Complicite, winning awards and critical acclaim in the UK.

The local production is directed by Adam Cook and, while it won’t be everyone’s cup of chai, it is certainly intriguing and thought-provoking. As the publicity bumf promises: “We guarantee it’s like nothing you’ve ever seen.”

– At the Space Theatre until July 18.