The Father - Sydney Theatre Company

Overview

John Bell returns to STC in Florian Zeller's tense, fractured thriller that places the audience inside the mind of a man afflicted with dementia.

Andre has always kept two watches — the one on his wrist and the one in his head. But with Alzheimer's his new self-appointed timekeeper, Andre's clocks have begun to run amuck. People walk in and out of his house at odd hours, some familiar and some not, despite many of them wearing the same face. Andre gets the sense that someone wants to throw him out of his house, but he can't remember who. He is a man besieged by his own limitations, bitter and suspicious of all who cross his path, lest they prove to be an enemy he cannot recall.

Disorienting and terrifying, The Father is a Lear-inflected spiral into oblivion. Be sure to bring a torch — the darkness is unrelenting.