Lost Lear Review -- About Love and Dementia

Lost Lear is a compelling fusion of Shakespeare’s King Lear and contemporary theatre, guiding the audience through the fragmented, shifting world of dementia. Performed in three acts, "Confusion → Realisation → Complicity," it mirrors the mental journey from disorientation, through clarity, and back into uncertainty.

The piece draws direct parallels between King Lear’s three central figures and its own trio of characters, allowing both Shakespeare aficionados and newcomers to connect with its emotional and narrative core.

1. Synopsis

The story centres on Joy, a mother and former actor who once played King Lear, now living in care and experiencing dementia. Caught between past and present, Joy’s reality is layered, blurred, and emotionally charged.

In the first act, the audience is unsure what they’re witnessing, disjointed fragments, repeated lines, and shifting scenes. Gradually, the fog lifts, and we step deeper into Joy’s mind. By the final act, we are fully immersed in her reality, only to find ourselves once again in a haze of uncertainty, mirroring her lived experience.

Whether or not you know King Lear, the play’s structure is accessible, guiding viewers through its world with a careful balance of mystery and revelation.

2. Acting Performances

JOY: Venetia Bowe delivers a powerhouse performance, holding the play’s emotional and dramatic centre. At moments, her delivery is so rhythmically precise it resembles spoken-word poetry. Her seamless shifts between different personas in seconds are masterful.

CONOR (the Son): Gus McDonagh plays Joy’s middle-aged son, grounding the story with moments of realism.

LIAM (the Clown): Manus Halligan begins as the narrator, later taking on the role of Joy’s carer or doctor. His presence as a kind of “researcher” or observer provides an intriguing lens for the audience.

ENSEMBLE: Clodagh O’Farrell and Em Ormonde inhabit roles that are never fully defined, leaving their meaning open to personal interpretation—a fitting ambiguity for a play about fragmented reality.

3. Direction & Staging

Director/writer Dan Colley weaves moments of breaking the fourth wall with subtle immersive elements. The curtain is the production’s most powerful device: shifting projections and character positions signal transitions between different realities and memories.

A clever tip for first-time viewers: watch where the younger Joy stands on stage. Her position acts as a marker of time, helping to decode the play’s layered structure.

4. Design & Emotional Impact

The design blends a bit of dark humour and heaviness, allowing the audience to laugh before leading them into deeper emotional territory. One of the most striking moments is the use of a puppet, when young Joy sees her older self (the puppet) through the curtain. The imagery is haunting: was she seeing herself as a puppet too?

The production also benefits from partnerships with dementia-focused support groups, ensuring authenticity in its portrayal, and the director/writer himself also had life experience that a loved one had dementia.

5. Overall Impact

Lost Lear is emotionally demanding. For those with personal connections to dementia, it may feel like a direct hit to the heart. For others, it might provoke discomfort or even disturbance—and that’s part of its power. It invites empathy but doesn’t demand a single emotional response. You could be someone like the clown/ narrator, that sees from an evaluating perspective, or someone who tries to understand deeper and feel for Joy, or to say, the world of the people with dementia.

When I saw it on a quiet Sunday night, I found myself sobbing at times. Watching it before its official start felt like a privilege—a chance to reflect and share my experience with those unsure about attending.

6. Verdict

Not an easy watch, but a necessary one. Lost Lear is a delicate, layered, and deeply affecting work that will linger long after the curtain falls. Whether it leaves you moved, unsettled, or both, it will certainly make you see the world and the mind differently. However, what remains at the end, the sorrow that you may feel, could be a reality for us that dementia is yet to be an issue that can be solved anyway.

Rating: ★★★★½

Recommendation Level: ★★★★