This comparative study of Tristan Bernays’ Old Fools (2018) and Nick Payne’s Elegy (2016) concerns two contemporary plays in which love manifested in middle-age and older adulthood is a determinant factor in the reconceptualization of the ageing self, particularly when afflicted by memory loss or cognitive failure. Positioned within the framework of theatre and ageing studies, and drawing from their intersection with gender studies and disability theories, the study demonstrates that the narrative arc that both texts recreate is not free of overtones of decline. However, the manipulation of chronological time in both plays through different techniques, as well as the importance of their love story, one between a man and a woman in Old Fools, and the other between two women in Elegy, help disrupt the binary of young/old perpetuated by ageist cultures, and, ultimately, undermine rigid constructions of identity in old age. The article concludes that new theatrical representations of ageing that develop narratives of love not only enable richer debates on the construction of the self, but ultimately contribute to an all-inclusive stage and, with it, to an age-friendly society.

中文翻译：

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通过记忆丧失和爱情的戏剧来体现衰老的自我：特里斯坦·伯奈斯的《老傻瓜》和尼克·佩恩的挽歌

特里斯坦·伯内斯 (Tristan Bernays) 的比较研究老傻瓜（2018）和尼克·佩恩的挽歌（2016）涉及两部当代戏剧，其中中年和老年时期表现出的爱情是老年自我重新概念化的决定性因素，特别是在遭受记忆丧失或认知障碍的困扰时。该研究定位在戏剧和老龄化研究的框架内，并从它们与性别研究和残疾理论的交叉点中汲取灵感，表明两篇文本所重现的叙事弧线并非没有衰落的暗示。然而，两部剧中对时间顺序的操纵都通过不同的技巧，以及他们的爱情故事的重要性，一个男人和一个女人之间的爱情故事。老傻瓜，另一个是两个女人之间的挽歌，有助于打破年龄歧视文化所延续的年轻人/老年人的二元对立，并最终破坏老年时僵化的身份建构。文章的结论是，发展爱情叙事的新的老龄化戏剧表现不仅能够引发关于自我建构的更丰富的辩论，而且最终有助于建立一个包容各方的舞台，并随之建立一个对老年人友好的社会。