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.

Written by Dan Colley, with the cast, after Shakespeare
Music by Daniel McAuley
Directed by Dan Colley
Produced by Matthew Smyth
Set Design Andrew Clancy
Lighting Design Suzie Cummins
Costume Design Cherie White
Sound Design Kevin Gleeson
Video Design Ross Ryder
Dramaturgy Gavin Kostick