Profoundly moving story of end-of-life care

Old Vic Theatre

Alexander Zeldin‘s latest play, which he also directed, transports the audience into the dementia section of a care home, where Joan played by Call The Midwife‘s Linda Bassett has just arrived. We follow her decline while also meeting other residents and the staff. All the critics found it a hard but rewarding watch. Linda Bassett received the highest praise but other members of the cast- Rosie Cavaliero as her daughter, Llewella Gideon as a carer, Richard Durden as another resident, and more- were also acknowledged by the critics for their performances. All agreed that Rosanna Vize‘s set captured the atmosphere of a care home where the residents are detached from life and waiting for death.

5 stars ⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑

The Telegraph‘s Dominic Cavendish began his review: ‘Care at the Young Vic is a profoundly moving, beautifully acted portrait of life, and death, in a nursing home for the elderly. It’s the best thing writer-director Alexander Zeldin, 41, has done, which is saying something.’ He was not alone in revealing that his review was informed by his own experience: ‘In 2023, I went through something similar with my own mother. It’s a tribute to how responsibly this play is handled that it left me devastated once again, yet cathartically released. Care is theatre at its best.’

4 stars ⭑⭑⭑⭑

<The i’s Fiona Mountford also touchingly referred to the ordeal she had in the last year of her mother’s life: ‘The mood of the piece settles into one of deliberate slowness and boredom, interspersed with sudden sharp bursts of emotion; this perfectly mirrors the experience I had of watching someone I loved wither away in a range of care facilities.’ While praising the accuracy and poignancy of the play, she pointed out: ‘For all their complaints about being overworked and under-resourced, the two carers we see, above all, Llewella Gideon’s cheerfully resilient Hazel, have an almost saintly amount of time and patience for their charges. It seems to have become an obligation for all care workers and NHS staff to be portrayed like this, but unfortunately, this is very far from my experience with Mum. The care she received was competent at best, yet far more often cursory, bordering on the downright negligent. It’s a comforting delusion that a broken system is held together by human heroes.’ [I’ve assumed a 4 star rating].

Holly O’Mahony at LondonTheatre wrote: ‘Alexander Zeldin blows open the doors to the care system and, over two hours of naturalistic scenes, makes us confront a reality we’d sooner shy away from.’ She concluded: ‘It’s a form of endurance theatre for the audience – the kind that lodges a lump in your throat and doesn’t let up – but making us face dying and death in this way is arguably its own form of care.’

‘It is gruelling, intense and true, with darkly sublime performances from actors playing the residents’ said The Guardian’s Arifa Akbar. She described it: ‘Set in what seems like a locked dementia ward, this play is both an unwavering portrait of what it means to be old, and an indictment of a system that leads to such acute loneliness in this last leg of life.’

The Times’ Clive Davis declared: ‘Zeldin…forces us to watch things we would rather not think about. At this drab establishment two overworked staff members, Hazel and Fanta (Llewella Gideon and Aoife Gaston), calmly supervise individuals whose minds are slowly coming adrift. These people wander through each day like ghosts.’ He said: ‘by the end you’ll feel drained but also quietly grateful. Zeldin has guided us through another country.’

‘it is gruellingly compelling’ reported The Standard‘s Nick Curtis. He had reservations: ‘Old, infirm people just aren’t this funny, and even those in extreme distress aren’t this consistently sad.’ He qualified this by saying: ‘But this is to apply real-life standards to what is, after all, a work of fiction. And the grinding pace, the repetition and the exasperation of old age is well observed. If this doesn’t sound like a barrel of laughs, it’s because it’s not. But it is a singular, compassionate piece of work.’ He mentioned: ‘Rosanna Vize’s authentically bleak set transforms twice, and it’s surely testament to the studied realism that she and Zeldin bring to this world that I thought I even caught a musty, antiseptic care-home smell.’

Clementine Scott for BroadwayWorld noted: ‘At the heart of this play…is a keen sense of how older people experiencing cognitive decline behave, and what that might illuminate about their subconscious (…) Just one throwaway line, or even one pointed look, betrays an entire universe of nostalgia and trauma living in the mind of someone who can no longer fully express it.’ She concluded: ‘Care is a great theatrical achievement just for its attempts to plumb the subconscious of the elderly, rather than treating them merely as objects of sympathy. There is nothing saccharine here, but instead a dignified portrait of old age in all its complexities.’

The Stage‘s Sam Marlowe found: ‘The piece is meticulously, unflashily acted by a faultless ensemble, and its situations – minor tragedies, no less shattering for being commonplace – are often heartbreaking. There is a tinge of sentimentality and sanitisation that slightly undercuts the production’s power. Yet despite those somewhat softened edges, at more than two interval-free hours it’s a tough watch.’

Time Out‘s Andrzej Lukowski praised the lead: ‘Bassett is an absolute trooper, giving an utterly unflinching – and ultimately very brave – performance as a kindly grandmother being slowly hollowed out over the course of the play’s nebulous (but at least, months-long) time frame.’

Critics’ average rating 4.1⭑

CARE can be seen at the Young Vic theatre until 11 July 2026. Buy tickets directly from the theatre.

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