Caring for Memory: Exploring Applied Theatre as a Resource in Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease Care

This article explores the potential for artistic experiences to address dementia, a growing global health challenge with no pharmacological cure. The role of arts-based approaches in dementia care is reviewed, with a specific focus on applied theatre experiences. Drawing on the World Health Organization’s report and syntheses of recent evidence, it highlights how artistic engagement –through multimodal stimulation involving aesthetic, emotional, cognitive, and social elements – supports psychological well-being, social connectedness, and quality of life for people living with dementia and their caregivers. The paper then presents applied theatre methodologies, characterized by participatory workshops emphasizing subjectivity and different languages (not cognitive, but primarily bodily) that make these methods particularly feasible for work in the field of dementia. An Italian case study, “Teatro Fragile” by Compagnie Malviste, is presented as an exemplary applied theatre project, Alzheimer Cafés, which are integrated into the local social care system and are yielding measurable improvements in both patients and caregivers’wellbeing.