At the risk of sounding crass, Rory Byrne is giving an unforgettable performance in the Abbey Theatre Studio this week. 

Insensitive perhaps because the play, The Father by Florian Zeller and translated by Christopher Hampton, is about dementia and how its accompanying memory loss can have a terrible impact on the sufferer, their loved ones and their carers. 

At the heart of it is the growing inability of Andre, the role taken by Rory, to remember things as his life falls apart and he slips into a world of confusion and greyness. 

It is not an easy play to watch and sympathy switches from Andre to his daughter Anne, played brilliantly by Rory’s real-life daughter Katy Robinson, who bears the brunt of his dementia and decline. 

But it is Rory in the role as a once-proud man unable to understand what is happening to him and why who takes the acting honours in a play that looks at dementia from the point of view of the sufferer above everyone else. 

His Andre is a slightly belligerent but otherwise kindly man whose deterioration is something that is beyond his experience and that of those who surround him. 

For years Rory has been a stalwart of the Company of Ten and it could be argued that this is his best role yet. 

Director Philip Reardon must have been delighted to have Rory take the role of Andre in a production that is moving in so many aspects. 

At first the stage is cosy but a closer look reveals two paintings showing roads to nowhere. As the play progresses and Andre deteriorates, the set becomes starker until it becomes more like a sanitorium than a home,  

As well as Katy in the key role of Anne, the daughter who cares for Andre as much as possible but with little or no thanks, Matthew Hunter is perfectly cast as Pierre – who may or may not be Anne’s husband – and Man. 

His character(s) become increasingly sinister and Andre develops an overwhelming fear of violence that the two men demonstrate so realistically. 

Susie Evershed as Woman and Noelle Hudson as Laura, both of whom are Andre’s carers, carry off their roles with skill. 

The Father depicts a stage in life that sadly so many will go through but it brings out the best in both director and cast. The Abbey Theatre Studio will do well to better it in the current season. 

It runs until Saturday and tickets can be obtained from the box office on 01727 857861 or go to www.abbeytheatre.org.uk.