This actor was told he had Alzheimer’s, now he’s performing a one-man show
2 hours ago
Stagefright Films
For four days running, Peter Marinker had arrived at rehearsals that were not even taking place. Dementia had muddled the dates in his mind
Yet he is now preparing to do something most actors would find daunting even with perfect recall: performing a much-loved Samuel Beckett play alone on a London stage
Marinker, 85, is best known for his voice work: from radio plays and video games to big-budget films like Labyrinth and Paddington in Peru
On camera he was the adviser to the US president in Love Actually and one of the airline passengers in the drama United 93
In 2023 he was playing Gandalf in a stage version of Lord of the Rings when he felt himself “switching off” and an understudy had to take over for the rest of the run
MRI scans and other health checks followed. Then two years ago, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease
“I just had to accept it,” he says. “It explained why I kept losing things and I started laughing at myself, at all the other silly things I do again and again.”
Stagefright Films
At that point, some actors may have stepped back from the pressure of performing in front of a live audience
But “out of the blue” a call came in from someone Marinker had worked with closely in the past – Dave Wybrow, the director of the Cockpit Theatre in London
The idea was to put on Krapp’s Last Tape, an intense one-man play in which an ageing writer listens back to recordings of his younger self, remembering a lifetime of regrets and missed opportunities
“It’s a dynamite show and a dynamite piece of writing,” says Wybrow, whose mother also lived with memory problems at the end of her life
Rehearsals have been running since the end of June to give Marinker extra time to practise, and a whole team assembled to make the play happen
A stage manager will stand next to the set throughout the performances, autocue screens will be dotted around the theatre, and Marinker will be wearing a tiny earpiece so he can be quickly prompted if he forgets his lines
Wybrow is adamant this is not about “covering up” Marinker’s illness, but showing that collaborative, creative work is still more than possible after a dementia diagnosis
From day one, Marinker says he did not have any concerns
“Dave asked would I like to do it, and I was just ‘Yes. Oh yes, yes, yes, yes!'” he says
“I’ll still get nerves [on the first night] but I know how to deal with them – that’s just the adrenalin.”
Echoes from the past
This is not the first time Marinker has performed the play. He first took on the same role in 1983
The production team unearthed reel-to-reel recordings of that performance more than 40 years ago, and they will be woven into the new production as his character listens back to echoes of his younger self
One of the striking things about Alzheimer’s is that memory loss can be selective rather than uniform
Early in the disease, regions around the hippocampus, deep within the brain’s temporal lobes, are among the first to be affected
That area plays a key role in forming and retrieving what scientists call episodic memories: memories of specific events and experiences in a person’s life
That is why people with Alzheimer’s may struggle to recall a family holiday, a conversation with a friend or somebody’s name, for example
But other memories linked to highly practised skills and routines can be more resilient
“Something stored in long-term consolidated memory is often easier to access than new memories that have just been formed,” says Tara Spires-Jones, professor of neurodegeneration at the University of Edinburgh and author of Fighting for Our Minds
That helps explain why some people with Alzheimer’s can still make a cup of tea, recall song lyrics, or even perform music or a well-rehearsed theatrical script after other memories may have begun to fade
Tackling the stigma
All the profits from the four-day theatre run are going to the Alzheimer’s Society, an organisation which helped Peter after his diagnosis
Research for the charity in 2025 suggested that 42% of people living with dementia felt ashamed about their symptoms
One-in-five of those with memory problems said they had not seen a doctor about a diagnosis because they were worried about the reaction of friends and family
Stigma is “still very much prevalent”, says Taiyaba Zeria, who manages dementia support services for the Alzheimer’s Society in London
“What Peter is doing really highlights that a diagnosis is not the end, and a person living with dementia can still do so many things they enjoy and they are passionate about.”
Marinker, meanwhile, describes the project as his “wonderful swan song”
“I’m in the early stage [of the disease], so I need to make the best of the early stage and prepare as best I can for the middle stage,” he says with a wry laugh
“I might just live through this [performance], or I might just drop!”
- Peter Marinker is appearing in Krapp’s Last Tape at the Cockpit Theatre in London from 2 to 5 September.
Health
Dementia
Alzheimer’s
Theatre
