Sense – A New Musical About Dementia – theSpace Triplex

Produced by Belgian-based company Plotfish, Sense is a touching new musical created in collaboration with the Belgian Alzheimer’s League.  Gathering around the dinner table for Christmas, the Smit family is hosted (as they are yearly) by their Grandad Albert (Erik Goris).  Being gifted a projector for his Christmas, Albert takes the family on a trip down memory lane as he peruses his old photos.  The further the night goes on, the more Albert begins to confuse his memories – we realise the Smits aren’t the Hallmark family they are pretending to be.  The family are no longer on speaking terms but have agreed for this one night to come together for Albert’s sake.  Having been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s six years ago, they play happy families so as not to confuse or upset Albert, but the pretences only hold up for so long.

Sense’s production design is sleek and polished – especially for a Fringe production.  The set is probably the most intricate I’ve seen at this year’s Fringe, with two curving wooden ramps designed to look like Albert’s photo slides, the interior being fitted with colour-changing LEDs and all.  The ramps are so sturdy that at times the actors run up and down them, which again considering this is a Fringe show with very limited set-up time, is a very impressive addition to the show.  One of the greatest uses of these ramps is when Albert recalls when his wife Lily (Femke Verschueren) performed as a cabaret star in Paris.   Beginning the scene as Albert’s nurse, Verschueren adds a feather boa and fascinator to her scrubs to transform into the memory of Lily.  Using the ramps as her stage, she runs up and down them with ecstatic energy – the nimbleness of her movement is especially impressive considering she tackled the sheer slope of the ramp in heels.  Not only does Verschueren wow with her performance, but her singing voice is stunning too – truly a one of a kind treasure.  The cast are charming, all delivering solid performances with both their acting and singing.  The family dynamic they create is filled with complexity but also so much love – it is a pleasure to watch them work together.  They tackled the difficult topics (not only Alzheimer’s but alcoholism, divorce, and homophobia too) tactfully, each actor showing the mental battle their characters are facing with truth and power.

Although the lighting design was seamless, I think the execution of the sound design was questionable, with the actors singing without microphones to a backing track.  Because the actors didn’t have microphones, it limited the volume of the track, meaning we missed out on a lot of the power of the instrumentation.  With the songs written by Verschueren and the book written by Jens Goossens it would have been nice to hear the songs to their full extent – although there is a cast recording in Belgian available.  The songs weren’t to my taste personally – I preferred the scenes rather than the numbers and found I couldn’t recall the majority of the songs.

With all that said, I think this musical was very well-made, with a real sense of commerciality – there was nothing amateur about this.  The topics addressed are ones that I think the general public often resonate well with, having them hit close to home so the positive reaction to this musical is not surprising at all – especially since there seems to be a significant lack of stories surrounding Alzheimer’s in the media.  Also considering the numerous amounts of research that connects memory recall to music, using a musical as context was perfectly fitting.  Although not necessarily a musical I gravitated towards, there is definitely demand for this, especially given the high quality that emanated from both the cast and crew.

Sense – A New Musical About Dementia has finished its run as of the 22nd of August at theSpace Triplex, with more information available at https://www.thespaceuk.com/shows/2025/

Reviewer: Jessie Martin

Reviewed: 22nd August 2025

North West End UK Rating: