Dementia the Musical
Dementia the Musical is on tour across Scotland (October to November 2024). Check out the trailer, flyer and programme below. Further down the page there is all tour dates with links direct to book tickets. And full cast/creative team.
Dementia the Musical Trailer
[Film Credit: Kelman Greig-Kicks @Neon8]
A radical new musical theatre production by Ron Coleman, Scottish poet and writer living with dementia, in collaboration with renowned director Magdalena Schamberger and one of Britain's top jazz musicians Sophie Bancroft as composer and musical director.
Written for and with those living with dementia this brand-new musical is based on the campaigning work of three of Scotland's longest serving dementia activists James McKillop, Nancy McAdam and Agnes Houston, and the fight they have led to ensure people with dementia have a voice in what happens in their lives.
Dementia the Musical is a funny but moving production telling the history of Scottish dementia activism and their role front and centre of it.
Set in the not-too-distant future where the ‘British Bill of Rights' has replaced the ‘European Convention on Human Rights' and is being used by organisations and care-home owners to deny residents their rights to a family life by allowing the system to control what individuals with dementia can do, where they live, who can visit and when they can visit. The musical sees the three activists as characters reimagined to be back in their youth, being brought to a care home in Dundee to face a tribunal, led by the character ‘Rigid System' that is accusing them of both not having mental capacity and of being troublemakers. At the end of the performance the audience will be asked to reach a verdict, either supporting the dementia activists right to live a fulfilled life at home in spite of their diagnosis or to confine them indefinitely to a care home until their demise.
Dementia the Musical will be on a Scottish Tour, Autumn 2024. Full list of dates and venues, listed below.
Saturday 12th October, Edinburgh, Capital Theatre, 2pm & 7.15pm Tickets
Wednesday 16th October, Stornoway, An Lanntair - 8.00pm Tickets
Friday 18th October, Dundee, Dundee Rep, 7.30pm Tickets
Tuesday 22nd October, St. Andrews, The Byre Theatre, 7.00pm Tickets
Wednesday 23rd October, Aberdeen, The Lemon Tree, 7.30pm Tickets
Friday 25th October, Shetland Isles, Mareel Arts Centre, 8pm Tickets
Wednesday 30th October, Stirling, Macrobert Main House, 7.30pm Tickets
Thursday 31st October, Cumbernauld, Lanterhouse, 7.30pm Tickets
Sunday 3rd November, Banchory, The Barn Arts, 7.30pm Tickets
Tuesday 5th November, Inverness, Eden Court, 7.00pm Tickets
Thursday 7th November, Findhorn, Universal Hall, 7.30pm Tickets
Saturday 9th November, Paisley, Arts Centre, 7.30pm Tickets
Scotsman
"A quietly tremendous celebration of activism...overwhelming moving"
Corr Blimey
"..deserves to be described as inspiring in the best sense of the word!"
North West End UK
"perfectly paced and expertly executed"
The Herald
"a mix of music theatre pizzazz and political intent...a mix of agit-prop, Kafkaesque absurdism"
"Defying diagnosis...a story of hope"
The Courier
About Dementia the Musical
Check out the video about the background of the musical. Hear from Ron Coleman the writer, why he wrote the musical and from the Director Magdalena Schamberger, telling us about putting the musical together.
Additional Activity
Alongside the production itself Ron Coleman and other ‘dementia activists' will be available for workshops, Q&As, post or pre-show talks about their work, lived experiences and the show itself.
Meet the Cast
Ross Allan
James McKillop
Ross has been performing in theatre, TV, and radio for over 20 years. Theatre credits include various plays for the Oran Mor Play, Pie and a Pint seasons, national and international tours with Catherine Wheels, Vanishing Point, Grid Iron Theatre Company, and National Theatre Scotland. Ross has also performed in numerous pantomimes in Scotland and is a firm favourite at Eden Court in Inverness. TV Credits include Outlander: Blood of my Blood; Shetland, Still Game, Taggart, Rebus and Children's TV series Me Too.
Fiona Wood
Nancy McAdam
Theatre includes: Keepin' the Heid (Play, Pie and a Pint), Metamorphosis: Unplugged (Vanishing Point), Peter Pan and Wendy, The Crucible, Blonde Bombshells, Heritage, Chicago, Quality Street, Before the Party and The Last Witch (Pitlochry Festival Theatre) Glory on Earth and The Winter's Tale (Royal Lyceum Theatre), The James Plays (National Theatre of Scotland), Gabriel's Gig (Drake Music), The Steamie (Neil Laidlaw), Cannibal Women of Mars, Ya Beauty and the Beast and Flo White (Tron). TV/Film includes Only an Excuse (BBC Scotland), Sketchland (BBC), Hospital 24/7 (Sky), Scot Squad, Rab C Nesbitt (Comedy Unit) and Short Films Room 9 and Home (RCS).
Pauline Lockhart
Rigid System
Pauline has worked with many leading theatre companies including: National Theatre Scotland, Grid Iron, Hampstead Theatre, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Improbable Theatre, Royal Lyceum Edinburgh, The Tron Theatre, Thickskin, The Traverse Theatre and Manchester Royal Exchange, (TMA Award for Best Supporting Actress and The Manchester Evening News Best Supporting Actress Award for An Experiment With An Airpump). TV & Film Credits Include: Case Histories, Holby City, Casualty, Heartless, Strictly Sinatra, The Glass and Monarch of the Glen. She co-wrote and co-directed Strange Tales (Grid Iron Theatre, The Traverse Theatre, The Royal Shakespeare Co, and Confucius Institute); co-wrote new musical, Forever Home with composer, Alan Penman (2023, Oran Mor). Pauline is also co-founder of Wildfire Theatre
Kirsty Malone
Agnes Houston
Credits include Nailed it! (Edinburgh Festival, Virgin Voyages, Norwegian Cruise Line), Melania (A Play, A Pie and A Pint, Oran Mor), Six Black Candles (The Glasgow Pavilion), A Matter of Life and Death (Citizen's Theatre), White Christmas, Miracle on 34th Street (Pitlochry Festival Theatre), Sweeney Todd, The Elves and the Shoemaker (Dundee Rep), Sunshine on Leith (No.1 UK tour), Quadrophenia (No.1 UK tour), and pantomimes at Perth Theatre, Ayr Gaiety, Brunton Theatre. TV: Clique (BBC). She also regularly gigs with her swing group The St. Andrews Sisters.
Willy Gilder
Reporter
Willy was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease in April 2021. His form of disease affects his eyesight but not his memory. As an ex-journalist he has decided to use his skills in interviewing and social media to further knowledge about dementia, in an effort to fight the stigma around the illness. During 2022 he produced a series of video interviews with people with dementia and is also working on a portrait painting project.
Meet the Creative Team
Ron Coleman
Writer
Originally from Dundee, Ron lives on the Isle of Lewis. Following his diagnosis with dementia in 2017, Ron established Deepness Ltd a not-for-profit organisation, run by people living with dementia and cognitive impairment for people living with dementia and cognitive impairment. He has made a new life writing poetry, plays, music, and books as he thrives living with dementia. Recent written works for stage and film include Caught in This Moment of Time (Scottish tour 2022), The Consultant (2020), Lost in Stornoway (2021) both directed & filmed by Laura Cameron Lewis, Hey Santa (2021) commissioned by Luminate. Ron has just launched the first ever Dementia Arts Festival showcase the best of music, theatre, poetry and film, all produced by those diagnosed with dementia.
Magdalena Schamberger
Director
Magdalena has over 30 years of experience performing, directing, and teaching physical theatre and clowning in the UK and internationally. She co-founded Hearts & Minds in 1997 and remained its Artistic Director until December 2017. In this role she developed the unique and highly acclaimed Elderflowers programme for people living with dementia, which has influenced similar programmes across the globe. In 2014, she was awarded a Paul Hamlyn Breakthrough Fund grant to further advance her work and created Curious Shoes and In the Light of Day, collaborative performances for people living with dementia, as well as Artful Minds and Mindful Arts, experiential training initiatives for artists of all art forms. Currently working on development of Framed, the third part of her dementia responsive trilogy. She was appointed Honorary Professor with the School of Health Sciences at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh in 2016, was Founding Member of the Bold programme and its Creative Director until March 2024. Magdalena is a proud Trustee and EDI Champion on the Board of Directors of Love Music.
Sophie Bancroft
Composer / Musical Director
Sophie is a singer and songwriter with a unique blend of jazz and folk influences. She has released nine CDs to date including Songs, one of The Herald's top 50 Scottish albums of 2015. Monday Nights, a recent release from her duo Bancroft & Lyne was listed in Jazzviews top jazz albums of 2020. Her music has been used on HBO's Six Feet Under and recorded by top jazz vocalists including Liane Carroll with the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. Sophie co-leads The Pathhead Choir, is a founder member of the award-winning Pathhead Music Collective, and of Jazz Forward, a collective music organisation showcasing some of the original jazz being written in Scotland. In 2019 she was awarded a Masters with distinction in Creative Writing and expanded her practice to include creative writing, photography, and filmmaking. Her first short film (S)kin won best documentary short at the 8&HalFilm Awards and screened at the Women Over Fifty Film Festival 2021 and Italian film festival Cinema D'Idea 2022. Her following short film, Old Mother Blackbird, is a story about maternal love and empty nests inspired by a brave and loyal blackbird who nested in Sophie's own garden. It was screened at the Women Over Fifty Film Festival (WOFFF) in 2023
https://www.sophiebancroft.co.uk/
[photo credited: Mihaela Bodlovic]
Tom Lyne
Sound Design
Tom is a bassist/musician, composer, and sound designer. He studied music at McGill University in Montreal and later graduated with an MSc in Sound Design from Edinburgh's Napier University. In 2020 he won an award from Creative Scotland Lottery funding to investigate and produce a significant new body of original soundscape libraries celebrating the Midlothian region. In addition to his sound design work, he also has an extensive discography as a bassist and composer from the last 4 decades as a professional musician. He was supervising sound editor and composer for the documentary film In The Light In (2020) by director/producer Susan Kemp. He worked again with Susan Kemp/Wendy Griffith production The Lynda Myles Project: A Manifesto (Official selection Dublin International Film Festival 2024 – UK premiere). He also mixed and edited (sound) for a Mark Cousins film titled, Cinema Has Been My True Love: The Work and Times of Lynda Myles (World Premiere at Telluride Film Festival 2023).
Karen Tennent
Set / Costume Design
Karen lives in Edinburgh Scotland and is a graduate of Edinburgh College of Art. Her work as a theatre designer has toured all over the UK and abroad from village halls to Sydney Opera House. Recent designs include: Thrown (National Theatre of Scotland ), The Celtic Story (Regular Music), Sean and Daro (Traverse Theatre), Castle Lennox ( LungHa /Lyceum Edinburgh), Educating Rita (Perth Theatre), Field – something for the future now (Curious Seed /Edinburgh International Festival / Festival Cultura Inglesa Sao Paolo, Brazil), The Children (Dundee Rep), And if not Now... When, a film installation by Philip Pinsky and Karen Lamond in the National Museum Edinburgh for COP 26, Lots and Not Lots (Greg Sinclair).
Colin Grenfell
Lighting Design
Colin has worked for over 30 years in the industry. Theatre includes Improbable: The Tao of Glass (Manchester International Theatre), Lost without words, Theatre of Blood, Lifegame (National Theatre), The Hanging Man, 70 Hill Lane, Coma, The Paper Man, Spirit, Animo, Beauty and The Beast, Panic, No idea, Still No Idea, The Tempest (UK & International). For the Royal Exchange Theatre: Macbeth, Kes, Separate Tables, The Cherry Orchard (also Bristol Old Vic Theatre), Tamburlaine (RSC), Black Watch, The Bacchae, 365, Men Should Weep, Granite (National Theatre of Scotland), The Village Social (National Theatre Wales), The Caretaker (Liverpool Playhouse, BAM, Adelaide Festival, West End), Stevie (Chichester Festival Theatre), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Theatr Clwyd, Best Lighting Award Wales Theatre Awards), The Elephant Man (Best Design CATS award), The Hanging Man (Best Design TMA awards).
Suzie Normand
Production Manager
Suzie is one half of SNC Productions, which was established in 2023 with Craig Fleming. Their mission is to offer the highest quality production and tour management support to Scotland's small and mid-scale touring sector. Suzie and Craig bring together over 50 years combined experience working across Scotland's theatre sector, most notably with Catherine Wheels Theatre Company where they created and toured multi award winning theatre productions across Scotland, the UK and Internationally. Recent clients include National Theatre of Scotland, Scottish Opera, Royal Lyceum Theatre, Freckle Productions, Lung Ha, Dundee Rep, Scottish Dance Theatre, Scottish Theatre Producers, Foresight Theatrical, Noise Maker, Macrobert Arts Centre, Platform, Curious Seed, 21 Common, Starcatchers, Guesthouse and Stellar Quines.
Gemma Greig-Kicks
Producer
Gemma Greig-Kicks is a freelance Producer and Arts Manager working across the commercial and publicly funded arts, film and third sectors. Currently, through Great Leap Forward, she is General Manager for Matthew Bourne's New Adventures touring productions, independent producer for Sylvian Productions (writer Sylvia Dow), Associate Director for 1DegreeEast and is also Creative Producer for her and her husband's award-winning video & VR production company, Neon8. https://neon8.scot/ Gemma is also chair of the board for children's theatre company, Dirliebane.
Kelman Greig-Kicks
Film / Videographer
Kelman is a filmmaker and Creative Director of Neon8, an award-winning film and immersive video production company.
Chris Stuart Wilson
Choregrapher
Chris has a portfolio career within the performing arts with his work ranging from theatrical choreography to performing his own international comedy act. He also has extensive experience as a dance facilitator for vulnerable and marginalised groups and his work exploring the therapeutic impact of dance for older people living with dementia received global recognition in 2017 when the BBC presented a feature, Dancing with Dementia on Timeline, followed by Dancing to Happiness in 2018, presented by Dame Darcey Bussell.
