Furious comedy Really Old, Like Forty Five confronts embarrassment and fear about old age head-on. It exposes a society in which compassion vies with pragmatism and, by asking unequivocal questions, it comes up with some extraordinary answers.

There are just too many old people. As a government research body seeks to deal with the problems of a maturing population, the family in Really Old, Like Forty Five addresses its own. Lyn’s memory starts to go, Alice takes a fall and even Robbie has to face the signs of ageing. Relations are put to the test across three generations, as are those who enter the increasingly sinister world of State care.

Really Old, Like Forty Five playwright Tamsin Oglesby’s previous plays include The War Next Door (Tricycle theatre), US And Them and My Best Friend (Hampstead theatre).

Anna Mackmin, who directs Really Old, Like Forty Five, has previous London credits including Dancing At Lughnasa (Old Vic), Under The Blue Sky, In Celebration (both Duke of York’s theatre) Dying For It, The Lightning Play (both Almeida theatre) and The Dark (Donmar Warehouse).

For more about Really Old, Like Forty Five at the National Theatre, Cottesloe, read the First Night Feature.