This latest work from The Opera Group tackles the issue of dementia and the ways in which sufferers can feel increasingly isolated from the world around them. Presented in conjunction with a series of talks and workshops to mark Oxford’s Dementia Awareness Day, it is intended to be both educational and profoundly moving.

With music by Elena Langer and a libretto by poet Glyn Maxwell, the piece has been developed in partnership with the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London to ensure a realistic and informed artistic interpretation of this distressing condition.

The Lion’s Face is told from the perspective of Alzheimer’s patient Mr D, who gradually retreats into his own world where little makes sense and only isolated fragments of language connect him to his former life. The opera also focuses on the way his condition affects those around him. The piece is scored for five singers: Mr D’s wife (Elizabeth Sikora), Caregiver (Rachel Hynes), Fflur Wyn (Caregiver’s Daughter), Scientist (Benedict Nelson) and the voice of Mr D as a young boy (BBC2 Chorister of the Year Harry Bradford).

Mr D is played by actor Dave Hill, probably best known as Bert Atkinson in EastEnders, and as Alan in The Full Monty. For Dave, it is particularly poignant as his own mother suffered with dementia. “That’s why I was keen to do it,” he tells me. “Also, it’s a very worthwhile thing to do. It’s good if something’s got a serious content as well as being for entertainment.

“I’m finding it the hardest thing I’ve done for a long time, but I think it’s good to have a bit of a challenge. It’s an attempt to put dementia onstage and show people what it’s like, so it’s a very brave piece of writing.”

The Lion’s Face is at the Oxford Playhouse on Sunday, May 23. Tickets: 01865 305305. A promotional video can be viewed at oxfordplayhouse.com