It’s been getting raving reviews thus far!
Lost Lear, by renowned theatre-maker, Dan Colley tells the incredible moving story of dealing with dementia in a family and everyday life context, but told from the viewpoint of a person with dementia – through the familiar lens of Shakespeare’s King Lear character (and no, it’s not a play about Shakespeare!)
Following the national and international tour of A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings, Dan Colley and his company have turned their sights on a very (very) loose adaptation of King Lear, examining the self and that part of us that’s inaccessible to others.
The tour will officially open in Riverbank Arts Centre on the 20th of October and tour until the end of November, coming to The Everyman on October 24th and 25th.
A moving and darkly comic remix of Shakespeare’s play told from the point of view of Joy, a person with dementia, who is living in an old memory of rehearsing ‘King Lear’. Joy’s delicately maintained reality is upended by the arrival of her estranged son who, being cast as Cordelia, must find a way to speak his piece from within the limited role he’s given.
Using puppetry, projection and live video effects, the audience are landed in Joy’s world as layers of her past and present, fiction and reality, overlap and distort. ‘Lost Lear’ is a thought provoking meditation on theatre, artifice and the possibility of communicating across the chasms between us.
“A captivating journey, from an energetic and rambunctious beginning to the poignant and gentle end, it portrays the bewilderment of someone who wants to care, trying to have the shared experience with the person living with dementia, struggling and sometimes failing. I am delighted to hear that Lost Lear is on tour and many more people will have the opportunity to see it for the first time – or again.” – Susan Crampton, Dementia Carers Campaign Network
The play will be running from Tuesday October 24th – Wednesday October 25h at 8pm each night. You can grab your tickets in advance here.