A deeply affecting, tender and funny story of love and loss, Ben Target retells the death of the favourite ‘elder’ in his unconventional family. Across 65 minutes, he beautifully captures the impact of grief and the emotional gauntlet of caring for someone through terminal illness, its tests, transformations and reconciliations of personalities and relationships.

Lorenzo Wong had worked for Target’s architect grandparents and lived in the multi-generational, family home in London. With an intriguing, international backstory and a playful, fun disposition, he was the one who gave attention to the children, a nurturing figure with an eye for small details who stepped into the breech left by Target’s emotionally distant, manipulative parents. So when Wong became seriously ill during the pandemic, it made sense to the comedian that he would move in and repay his affection by caring for him.

Sentimental but never mawkish, Target doesn’t soft-sell Wong’s suffering, the indignity of losing control of your own destiny, nor the harmful strain it put upon his own life and the recriminations he fumed with. Yet with grace and a formal elegance to match the tidy lines of his woodworking set, the comedian has crafted a spellbinding piece that burns with feeling, but is borne on wry humour, fondness and profound insight into the human condition in its very darkest hours.

Ben Target: LORENZO, Summerhall, until 27 August, 11.55am.