Dan Colley is an Irish theater and film writer and director whose play, Lost Lear, had its North American premier at Villanova's Mullen Center for Performing Arts in February 2025.
While on campus Dan sat down with with Irish Studies and Theater faculty member Bess Rowen, to discuss his career in theater in general and Lost Lear, specifically.
Lost Lear is an adaptation of Shakespeare's King Lear, is told from the point of view of Joy, a retired actor with dementia, who is living in an old memory of rehearsing “King Lear.” The staff of the nursing home where Joy lives facilitate her care by acting out her happy memories. Joy’s delicately maintained reality is upended by the arrival of her estranged son who, being cast as Cordelia, must find a way to speak his piece from within the limited role he is given.
https://www.dancolley.com/theatre/lostlear
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Dan Colley is a theater and film writer and director from Dublin. He specializes in ensemble-devised theater, young audience theater, comedy, community participation and outdoor spectacle. He has been the Artist in Residence in the Riverbank Arts Centre in County Kildare, Ireland since 2019.
