You, Me & Dementia

Chocolate Muffins – “My Granddad always had that knowing look in his eyes whenever I asked him anything. His reply was always quick and always right. I used to ask “Granddad, how do you know all these things?” and he would say, well Champ, I am your Granddad and Granddad’s know everything”. But sadly he doesn’t say that anymore”. Chocolate Muffins is a short play that follows Oscar as he tries to understand and come to terms with his Granddad’s Dementia and Alzheimer’s. He sees his hero lose his way and become less and less of his big strong always right Granddad. Oscar has to remember his Granddad as the person who made him laugh so much that he use to wee his pants and not this shell of a man who is broken by Dementia. Bothered and Bewildered – “Look at your hands Darling, just look at them. Look at all those little lifelines etched into the palms of your hands and tell me they can’t tell a story, a great story! Everyone has a great story in them Darling. You’ve just got to wring it out of your heart and squeeze it through your fingertips onto the paper”. Bothered and Bewildered is a comic drama that follows Irene and her two daughters Louise and Beth as they begin a long journey in which the girls lose their mum in spirit but not in body. As her family struggle to come to terms with her Alzheimer’s, Irene’s past passion for romantic fiction blurs with reality. She discusses with her unseen and witty companion Barbara Cartland (Irene’s favourite and now deceased world famous romantic novelist) how best to write her ‘memory book’ disclosing to Barbara long kept family secrets that she would never reveal to anyone else.

Two plays performed about Dementia alongside a market place, with organisations that are linked to Dementia and Alzheimer’s.