AFTER captivating audiences in Paris, London and New York, Florian Zeller's moving and surprisingly humorous French drama phenomenon The Father opens at Harrogate Theatre tonight in its Yorkshire premiere.

Translated by Christopher Hampton, this Olivier and Tony Award-nominated black comedy portrays the devastating impact of dementia on one man and the people in his life.

André is a charming elderly gentleman who once had a glittering career as a tap dancer. Now 80, he lives with his daughter Anne and her husband Antoine in a chic Parisian apartment. Or was he once an engineer whose daughter Anne lives in London with her new partner, Pierre? The trouble is, he cannot quite remember, and nor can he find his watch.

Esteemed veteran actor, writer and director Kenneth Alan Taylor will be playing André : "Of all the plays I've appeared in, honestly, hand on heart, I think this is the most exciting I've ever done - and it's also the most frightening for me. This play has everything," he says.

Praise indeed for a play that won the 2014 Molière Award, France's most prestigious theatre prize, plus a clutch of awards on New York's Broadway, and was the Guardian's Pick of the Year.

"This show will get the audience thinking," says Rachel Auty, Harrogate Theatre's head of marketing. "It questions how we treat the elderly in society, exploring families and the dynamics and relationships within them.

"A hit with audiences in the south of England, this is the first time it will be performed in the north, in a production by Oldham Coliseum Theatre in association with Harrogate Theatre."

Taylor leads Kevin Shaw's cast, joined by Colin Connor as Man, John Elkington as Pierre, Helen Kay as Woman, Jo Mousley as Laura and Kerry Peers as Anne.

Taylor, 80 himself, is the former artistic director of the Nottingham Playhouse and twice former artistic director/chief executive of the Oldham Coliseum Theatre

He is the equivalent of York Theatre Royal's Berwick Kaler at the Nottingham Playhouse where he has not only played the dame but also written and directed more than 30 pantomimes.

In York, at the Theatre Royal in April 2008, he played the dame too in Philip Meeks's real-time monologue Twinkle, Little Star, a revenge comedy inspired apparently by John Inman.

Taylor starred as Harold Thropp, a curmudgeonly actor in his last season as pantomime dame Widow Twankey, consigmed to a dingy basement dressing room, much to his disgust.

The Father runs at Harrogate Theatre from tonight until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: 01423 502116 or at harrogatetheatre.co.uk

Did you know?

The Father's writer, Florian Zeller, is a literary sensation whose first novel, Artificial Snow, was published when he was still at university, aged 22. The Father is his his seventh play.