NICO confounded expectations with the release of The Marble Index in 1968. The follow-up to the erstwhile model’s folk-pop debut, its avant-garde austerity sold little but posthumously acquired the status of countercultural masterpiece.

So it makes a strange kind of sense for The Nico Project, commissioned as part of Manchester International Festival, to draw on the album’s experimental, non-linear spirit. Inspired by its songs and her time in the city, to which she was drawn by the music and drugs, playwright EV Crowe seeks to create an immersive experience.

The one-act production opens with Maxine Peake wandering on stage under harsh house lights. She distractedly fiddles with a mic as it feeds back and, looking through her thick fringe, starts to speak in elliptical, repetitive lines. It’s unclear whether she’s talking to herself, to the audience, or working through lyrical ideas.