Jessica Chastain Stars

Oscar winner Jessica Chastain stars in Irish writer Dan Colley’s Broadway debut Lost Lear. Inspired by the writer’s own experiences visiting his grandmother as she lived with dementia, the incredibly moving play was greatly acclaimed by audiences at the Dublin Theatre Festival in 2022 before going on tour internationally and winning the Fringe First Award at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2025. Now it transfers to Broadway with an A-list trio of Chastain, Emmy-nominated Michael Urie (Ugly Betty; Shrinking) and Golden Globe nominated Corey Stoll (House of Cards), with Colley himself directing.

In a care home a former actress, Joy, is beginning to lose her sense of the present, as early-onset dementia takes an ever greater hold of her. Her memories are fading but there is a vivid one still heavily intact; being in rehearsal for a production of King Lear. Convinced that this is her present day reality, she continues on through the rehearsals, as her compassionate nurse Liam plays along. When Joy’s long estranged son Conor arrives seeking some long-overdue closer, he finds that the only way he may get through to her is by entering her reality and taking on a role in the play.