Care

Sans Everything?

Care

by Alexander Zeldin

Young Vic and A Zeldin Company co-production at The Young Vic Theatre, Waterloo until 11^th July

Review by Eleanor Marsh

It is Dementia Action Week. Tube journeys and social media timelines are awash with images of forget-me-nots and stories of vibrant people whose sense of self has been lost due to this cruel disease. We are reminded that those of us fortunate to live into old age are also highly likely to fall prey to a similar fate. How appropriate then for the Young Vic to be producing Alexander Zeldin’s unflinching analysis of this most uncomfortable of topics.

Care is not for the faint-hearted; it is 140 minutes straight through and the discomfort of not being able to leave one’s seat whilst inhabiting Rosanna Vize’s realistically designed set give a truly immersive feel to the piece. After the first hour the four walls of the care home in which the play is set really do feel like they are closing in.

Although primarily the story of Joan, the new arrival to the home (a pitch perfect Linda Bassett), the play also depicts the struggles of several of the home’s other residents and Zeldin has captured well the different effects of dementia, from loss of speech to total loss of inhibition. He has also captured the struggles of Joan’s family. They (and we) do not intend for our elders to become a burden, but in the business of real life, it is so easy to perceive them as such. “I’ll visit you every day, Mum”, says Rosie Caveliero’s Lynn, only for us to be told “it’s been three months” a scene later. This, together with the “six minutes and one wipe only” for each resident’s wash, the dodgy electrics and the obviously overworked and under-funded staff sum up perfectly the crisis that the care system is in today.

The performances in this play are uniformly excellent, with stand-out contrasting portrayals from Hayley Carmichael as Simone and Ann Mitchell as Agnes. Richard Durden’s portrayal of John is heartbreaking.

There is occasional light relief. Sometimes this comes from the dark comedy to be found in any tragic situation and sometimes from the oh-so-welcome moments of humour from the unfiltered thoughts and words of youth. William Lawlor and Ethan Mahoney shone as Joan’s grandsons Laurie and Robbie and are definitely ones to watch.

In Care, Zeldin has created an uncomfortable, and at times almost unwatchable piece of theatre. At times it is a little too realistic. The direction is slow and there are several moments where actions are repeated or take what seem an interminably long time. The play succeeds in making the audience uncomfortable. The jury is out on whether those who need to see this play – and are in a position to remedy the real-life care situation – will have the stomach or stamina to voluntarily put themselves in the position of doing so.

Eleanor Marsh, May 2026

Photography by Johan Persson