The play opens with a focus on daily domestic tasks out of multiple windows: a bewatched-wrist emerges from curtains, a window opens on a hand darning fabric; these peeks at a functioning routine are established only to be mercilessly knocked down. Finding Joy is a heartbreaking tale of friendship and dementia, told by fully-masked actors. It is high praise to say that in spite of, or perhaps thanks to, their masks, Vamos Theatre's depiction of Joy, an 83 year old losing her mind, is both authentic and emotionally powerful.

Much like its set, this is a play with numerous shifting compartments. Without speech to rely on, we understand the world created by the theatre company solely through their physicality and the impressive soundscape (composed by Janie Armour). The present day twists with flashbacks of Joy's childhood and young adulthood, accompanied by specific music. These all blend together beautifully in Joy's moments of confusion, from the handkerchief she waved as a child, to a singing puppet dog, to the sound of the sewing machine she used. Thanks to this auditory signposting, and the importance placed on specific objects which find their counterparts in flashbacks, the play makes the audience relate to Joy's plight.

For all its emotional punch, Finding Joy is, as its title suggests, an optimistic play, delighting in the developing friendship between Joy and her unlikely carer, her grandson Danny. From a pill-popping posturing lout, Danny transforms into a swaggering knight, bringing playfulness into Joy's life. Danny understands how to make Joy's life brighter in ways that his mother, characterised by brusque efficiency, cannot comprehend.

This is a play to be seen not just for its fantastic cast, high production values or Rachael Savage's innovative direction, though these are strong arguments indeed, but also because it is a timely and important insight to an issue that can affect us all.