A show about care, made with the utmost care.
For the better part of a decade, I worked in care homes. Until this show, I had never seen anything which portrays the experience so accurately, and with such depth of emotion. So often the experience of care work is hidden, an experience we hope we never have to go through. Care homes are places out of sight and mind, until there’s no choice but to cross the threshold. Care is an unflinching, raw look at that world, and what it is like for all sides of the journey; resident, carer, child, grandchild.
Everyone should come to the Young Vic this summer and take that look themselves.
From the moment I took my seat I knew this show had been crafted with dedication. The set, dressed with all those little touches that those of us who have worked in care homes will spot; the CQC rating by the secure door, the piano that never gets played, the fishbowl nurses station, and of course, the distressing sight of a resident alone in a wheelchair. As the show started, other characters, residents of the home took their places, and it was a genuine delight to see the many reflections of dementia played so considerately by the cast. I recognised so many of the residents I had cared for in their portrayals; the gentleman who never sits down, not able to relax even now; the former businessman who dresses in a suit and tie for an office he’s long stopped going to; the sexually aggressive woman whose ended up here before her time. Never feeling like an archetype, the actors made their characters real and unique, while showing the varied ways in which dementia can take hold. Hayley Carmichael, as the sexually aggressive Simone, and Richard Durden, as the suit-and-tie John, were particular standouts, finding laughter and joyous moments, in their also devastatingly sad tales.
Linda Bassett, from Call the Midwife, plays the main character, our Joan, whose care home experience we see from start to end. Joan will break your heat into a thousand pieces. Linda gives the performance of a lifetime. There is a scene, with the also wonderful Llewella Gideon, who plays her carer Hazel, which shows the intimacy and indignity of care work in such a haunting way. It is a simple scene, showing how a bed wash works, but you can’t look away from it, however much it feels as though you are intruding on something. To do this scene every night is commendable, and they both deserve praise for how they have constructed this.
Rosie Cavaliero’s turn as the daughter also deserves recognition. The struggle of being torn between caring for your aging parents and your teenage children at the same time is one so many of us will have to experience, and as Rosie flits between from brave to understanding to blameable mum/daughter, you really feel how wearing it is to keep any sort of façade up at all.
There’s so much more praise I could heap upon this show – the writing, the direction, the work of the intimacy director, everyone has contributed to the creation of a truly special piece of theatre. But I think what truly sets this show apart, is the way it is able to show the confusing but magical joy and moments of connection that do take place inside care homes every single day, up and down Britain, and how these moments matter. However fleeting they are. They matter. Even if the heartbreak is louder.
Care is on at The Young Vic from 11th May 2026 to 11th July 2026.