Old Fools — a touching and powerful exploration of love, loss, and memory by acclaimed British playwright Tristan Bernays. The production is directed by Çağ Çalışkur, an Istanbul-based theatre director and founder of Craft Tiyatro, and produced by Cenk Suyabatmaz, whose work has played a key role in bringing contemporary Turkish theatre to international stages.

After more than 100 consecutive sold-out performances in Türkiye and multiple awards including Play of the Year by Notiyatro and Best Intimate Stage Production by the Direklerarasi Audience Awards, this unforgettable production arrives in London for a strictly limited run at Battersea Arts Centre on June 17, 18, and 19, 2025.

In a moving and intimate performance, İdil Sivritepe and Olgu Baran Kubilay bring to life the story of Tom and Viv – who are now in Craft’s production, İdil and Olgu themselves— two seemingly different people who find themselves drawn into a love so deep, they can’t exist without one another. As their bond grows stronger, so does the life they build together. But when Tom/Olgu is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, their reality begins to slip away. Old Fools is a powerful reflection on love, memory, and the courage it takes to keep loving when everything familiar starts to fade.

Director’s Note for “Old Fools” (Çag Çaliskur, Craft Tiyatro)

Old Fools tells a story that is at once deeply personal and universally human.
Between love and memory, it invites us to witness not only the beauty of connection but also the inevitable losses brought by the passage of time.

When I first encountered Tristan Bernays’ text, what struck me most was its relationship with simplicity — not simplicity as a lack of depth, but rather as a quiet reminder of the true value of what we so often take for granted.

Old Fools is, first and foremost, a story about our helplessness against memory, identity, and time — and then, about the quiet courage of not giving up, despite it all.

By adapting this story into Turkish, we explored love and memory through the lens of our own cultural landscape — a geography where family, caregiving, and the endurance of love are often tested in uniquely challenging ways.

Now, bringing it back to London with English subtitles feels like an exciting homecoming.

We are taking Bernays’ words for a walk — through our own interpretation, shaped by our experiences, yet resonating with the same universal questions.

Through Old Fools, perhaps we are asking:
If our minds abandon us, if our memories dissolve, if our past slips away —

 What  Remains?