A special discussion around telling stories of dementia will follow the first UK performance of Lost Lear at The Traverse on Sunday 27 July.

The new show by award-winning Irish theatre maker Dan Colley is a moving look at living with dementia, told through the familiar lens of Shakespeare’s characters

Following the preview performance on the 27 July, Dan will be joined by Alex Howard and Gus Harrower from Capital Theatres dementia-friendly programme and Magdalena Schamberger, who specialises in creating theatre for those with dementia

Lost Lear will run on the main stage at the Traverse from 2 to 24 August

Following its first-ever UK performance at Traverse Festival on 27 July, the hit Irish theatre show Lost Lear will host a special public discussion around telling the complex stories of dementia in theatre.

The discussion will feature Lost Lear’s award-winning creator Dan Colley, who will be joined by Alex Howard and Gus Harrower from Capital Theatres Edinburgh’s dementia-friendly programme and Scotland-based theatre-maker and consultant Magdalene Schamberger, who has over 20 years experience working with people living with dementia. The discussion will look at the initial creation of Lost Lear and its collaborations between Dementia Carers Campaign Network and the Alzheimer’s Society of Ireland. The play itself, a loose adaptation of Shakespeare’s King Lear, examines how we know ourselves and who we are to each other, amidst the complexities of dementia. The discussion will also be a chance for audiences to talk about how the show has resonated with their own experiences of living with and caring for those with dementia, with an invite being sent out to people from local dementia communities.

“Dan collaborated with the Dementia Carers Campaign Network (DCCN), an advocacy group supported by The Alzheimer Society of Ireland, in the early days of writing this play.” says Judy Williams, Advocacy, Engagement and Participation Officer for The Alzheimer Society of Ireland. “Through focus groups, carers shared their experiences, shaping Dan’s approach to the play. For the DCCN, the project was compelling, inclusive, and in some ways, healing. It also provided new opportunities for carers to share their stories, while raising awareness about the challenges they face.

We were very grateful for the opportunity to have this engagement with Dan and Matt, and we wish them all the best at the Edinburgh Fringe 2025. We hope as many people as possible have the opportunity to see this sophisticated and thought-provoking play.”

“Lost Lear is 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.” says Susan Crampton of the Dementia Carers Campaign Network. “I am delighted to hear that Lost Lear is going to Edinburgh and many more people will have the opportunity to see it for the first time – or again.”

Lost Lear is 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.

Following rave reviews for its Irish premiere, where it picked up nominations for Best New Play, Audience Choice, Best AV Design and Best Supporting Actor at the Irish Times Theatre Awards, Lost Lear will have its UK premiere at the Traverse Festival in Edinburgh this August.

Following its Fringe run, Lost Lear will tour to North America in Autumn 2025.

Co-produced by Mermaid Arts Centre and Riverbank Arts Centre. Funded by the Arts Council of Ireland and supported by Fishamble’s New Play Clinic. Part of the 2025 Culture Ireland Edinburgh Showcase.

  • Traverse 1
  • Preview 27 July 7.30pm and 2 August 9.30pm
  • Then 3 – 24 August (not Mondays) Times vary.
  • Run time: 1 hr 15 min
  • Tickets: £5 – £25
  • traverse.co.uk

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