This is the first time Chin has collaborated with a theater company on the Chinese mainland, and he admitted that playing Andre brought him new challenges. Because of the Alzheimer’s disease, his character has many repetitive and illogical lines, which he had difficulty remembering, a rare experience in the past decades of his successful movie and theater career.

Tian lost her own mother to Alzheimer's disease a few years ago. Playing the daughter brought back painful memories, but also made her performance more accurate and personal, she said.

The play will have 14 shows at Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center till Aug 11, and from Aug 15 to 18 be performed at the National Center for Performing Arts in Beijing.