Casting announced for Old Fools at Southwark Playhouse

Casting has been announced for the premiere of Tristan Bernays' Old Fools, which opens at Southwark Playhouse in March.

Directed by Sharon Burrell, it will star Mark Arends (1984, Almeida) and Frances Grey (Platonov, Almeida) as a couple trying to hold their relationship together, despite one of them living with Alzheimer's.

Old Fools is Bernays’ first play to be staged in London since Boudica, which starred Gina McKee at Shakespeare’s Globe last year.

Bernays said: "My grandpa had Alzheimer’s and my biggest fear about growing old is the same may happen to me.

"I wrote Old Fools to confront this fear head on – yes, it’s a play about the disease, but more importantly it’s about the people behind the disease. How we cope when someone we love disappears little by little. How we must never forget the wonderful person they once were – even if they are not there anymore."

The production has movement by Lucie Pankhurst, lighting by Peter Small, sound and composition by Christopher James Ash and casting by Sophie Parrott.

Old Fools runs at Southwark Playhouse from 15 March to 7 April, with previews from 14 March.