Take a look behind the scenes of this Made by Exeter Northcott production, find out how the show was born in a Hamburg staircase over twenty-five years ago, and what director Martin Berry and adaptor Giles Croft have discovered about the play as the rehearsals continue in full swing.
Forever Young is a high-energy musical comedy set in a retirement home for actors. Bursting with sharp wit, big heart and rock ’n’ roll spirit, it joyfully challenges ageism and celebrates the fire of life that never fades. It simply says: growing old doesn’t mean living out your days quietly!
Written by Erik Gedeon and adapted for the UK audiences by Giles Croft and Stefan Bednarczyk, Forever Young has played to sold-out houses in hundreds of theatres across Europe, Latin America, Singapore and beyond. It is directed here at the Northcott by Martin Berry, Joint Chief Executive, in a production performed by a cast that audiences will recognise from the Northcott stage.
Where it all began
Forever Young was born during a conversation between two old friends. It was the year 2000, and Erik Gedeon, then Musical Director at the Staatsschauspiel in Hannover, had just watched the film Buena Vista Social Club. He called his friend and fellow actor Rainer Piwek and asked a single question: what will we both do when we are ninety?
“Well, we will be on stage singing Dylan songs, as usual,” came the reply. That was the beginning of Forever Young.
In grey wigs, stage wrinkles, old theatre costumes, the two performed as ninety-year-olds, singing rock classics by Tom Jones, The Doors, Aretha Franklin and Nirvana. It was a smash hit.
A year later, after moving to Hamburg, a flooding forced a two-week closure and a creative emergency at his new workplace, the Thalia Theatre. Gedeon suggested putting armchairs in front of the safety curtain and creating ‘a singing retirement home’. The Thalia’s Creative Director stared at him. It seemed like one of the strangest things he had ever heard in his life. They did it anyway.
The Thalia Theatre has been playing Forever Young for over twenty-five years now. To sold-out houses. Dresden, Oslo, Berlin, Buenos Aires, Singapore… in hundreds of theatres around the globe, actors playing their retired alter egos sit on familiar stages and sing. Among them my friend Rainer Piwek, now over sixty. Singing Dylan songs, as usual. He was right.
Erik Gedeon, Writer of Forever Young
In Conversation with Giles Croft and Martin Berry
Giles, how did you first come across the show, and how did you go about bringing it to the UK?
Giles: In 2009 I was told there was an outrageously funny and moving show on at the Thalia Theatre in Hamburg. As I was going to Germany anyway, I thought I should catch it. I wasn’t disappointed. The play was originally created for the Thalia’s resident acting company — people who had worked together for years, whom the audience already knew and loved. We don’t have that system in Britain in the same way, but we do have pantomime. Most regional theatres have a core group of performers who return year after year, building shared history, comic trust and a real relationship with their local audience. The routines and jokes in Forever Young sit comfortably with the routines and jokes that we enjoy every Christmas. The play was so successful in Nottingham that we revived it on three occasions and I’m delighted that Martin has decided to present it in Exeter. Forever Young celebrates growing old disgracefully and I hope you will cheer the sentiment “don’t let the bastards grind you down”.
Martin, what does your production of Forever Young say about how we treat older people?
Martin: Forever Young directly challenges the quiet, everyday ageism that surrounds older people – the way they are so often underestimated, spoken over, or gently infantilised. Our production refuses the idea that ageing means shrinking. Instead, we meet characters who are sharp, funny, rebellious and complex, still driven by desire, frustration, curiosity and political fire. The play asks why society so readily assumes that older people are fragile, passive, or no longer relevant, and what we lose when we make those assumptions. At the Northcott, this story feels especially urgent – not as a nostalgic look back, but as a provocation. These characters remind us that identity does not stop evolving, and that experience brings depth rather than decline. By centring older characters onstage, Forever Young reclaims space for stories that are too often sidelined, and insists on the dignity, agency and continuing radical potential of later life.
I’m delighted that Martin has decided to present it in Exeter. Forever Young celebrates growing old disgracefully and I hope you will cheer the sentiment “don’t let the bastards grind you down”.
Giles Croft, Adaptor of Forever Young
How does it work with younger actors playing older roles?
Giles: There is no pretence that these actors are really 70 years old. They’re young people playing old, and that’s the challenge of the play, which is physically very demanding: lots of routines and pratfalls and everything you’d expect from pantomime. If they were genuinely the age of the characters, they simply couldn’t achieve the level of mayhem and comedy that’s required. Growing old disgracefully is really what it is. The characters think they can still do everything they did fifty years ago. Some of the time they can. Some of the time they spectacularly can’t. That gap is where the comedy lives.
Martin: In the rehearsal room we’ve been exploring what ageing genuinely feels like in the body. Every one of us has some bit that aches, and that’s probably the bit that will ache even more in fifty years. There’s a real journey of authenticity in asking our younger actors what they imagine their bodies will feel like. But then we also have to throw some of that out of the window so they can tap dance or fall off the stage. That tonal balance between truthfulness and joyful absurdity is where the whole play lives.
What role does music play in bringing the story to life?
Giles: You’ll hear songs you know very well — I Will Survive, I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll, Imagine, Respect — but heard in a way you’ve never heard them before. There are medleys where the characters move through a series of songs, partly generated by the moment, partly by sheer joy, taking them off into extraordinary vocal sequences that are genuinely beautiful. The music isn’t decoration, it’s how these characters express what they can’t always say in words: longing, rebellion, grief, elation.
Martin: And it’s all live. Every note. There’s something about hearing familiar songs performed live in a theatre — songs people carry with them, tied to memories and to who they used to be. That gives them an entirely new emotional weight.
The play deals with some difficult themes: illness, memory loss, mortality. How do you hold that alongside the comedy?
Martin: Getting older can feel frightening — a narrowing of options, a loss of control. Forever Young doesn’t shy away from that darkness, but it insists on finding light alongside it. Our production leans into humour, music and shared joy as acts of resistance against fear. Laughter becomes a lifeline, not a distraction. The characters face mortality, illness and uncertainty, but they also flirt, argue, dance and dream. There is something deeply hopeful in watching people choose life, connection and mischief even as time presses in. At the Northcott, we’ve embraced this tonal balance – allowing the play to acknowledge grief and anxiety while celebrating resilience and pleasure.
The play also opens up space for conversations about dementia and we wanted to hold those moments gently, without sentimentality or despair. Dementia here is not only about what is slipping away, but about what remains: personality, humour, relationships and emotional truth. By placing these experiences within a community of friends, the play shows how dementia is rarely an isolated journey. It affects everyone around it, reshaping dynamics, responsibilities and love.
Legacy and memory feel like important themes running through the play. Can you say more about that?
Martin: Memory sits at the heart of Forever Young — not just personal memory, but collective legacy. As friends and loved ones pass away, the characters find themselves becoming the carriers of shared histories, stories and ideals. Our production treats this not as a burden, but as a profound responsibility. To remember someone is to keep them alive in language, gesture and action. In the face of loss, the characters honour the dead by continuing to live fully, stubbornly, and with purpose. In Forever Young, this theme resonates deeply: theatre itself is an act of remembrance, a way of passing stories from one generation to the next. Forever Young reminds us that legacy is not about monuments or achievements, but about connection — the way we hold others inside us, and how those memories shape who we become. In remembering, the characters assert that love does not end with death.
Our production refuses the idea that ageing means shrinking. Instead, we meet characters who are sharp, funny, rebellious and complex, still driven by desire, frustration, curiosity and political fire. The play asks why society so readily assumes that older people are fragile, passive, or no longer relevant, and what we lose when we make those assumptions.
Martin Berry, Northcott’s Joint Chief Executive and director of Forever Young
Finally, why do you think people should come and see Forever Young?
Giles: It is funny, it’s moving, it’s surprising, and in the end it’s uplifting. Everybody in the audience understands the potential that comes with growing old — and it’s not always positive. This is a group of people who are saying: they’re trying to stop us having fun, but we will, whatever age we are. I’ve always believed this play has the potential to become nationally successful. There’s no reason why it shouldn’t travel as well here as it has across Europe and Latin America. I know Martin’s work, and he has a very particular relationship to community. This is very much a community-engaged piece. So yes — let’s take over the world.
Martin: It’s an absolutely hilarious, deeply moving great night that also makes you think. Which is all the things that theatre should do.
Inside the Rehearsal Room
REHEARSAL PHOTOGRAPHY
Be Part of the Story