Over the last two decades, there has been a transition in research about dementia care from a ‘person-centred’ approach to one which recognises caregiving as a creative and relational process. The gerontologist Mike Nolan and colleagues have argued that dementia care should be perceived as ‘a network of social relationships … which are deeply connected and independent’ (2004, 47). Simultaneously, performance scholars and practitioners working across different participatory contexts are becoming increasingly interested in the aesthetic connections between creativity and care. In his article, An Aesthetics of Care Thompson (2015) considers the ‘radical potential’ of placing ‘community-engaged arts work within the framework of care’ (432). He suggests that an aesthetics of care is concerned with ‘how the sensory and affective are realised in human relations fostered in art projects’ (436). Thompson’s emphasis on the relational process of artistic creation in community-engaged work raises timely questions about the aesthetic qualities of theatre and performance that is made with, or in response to people who are living with dementia. Timely, because this field of work has developed significantly in the past decade from a therapeutic activity to a creative movement which includes participatory theatre in care homes, plays about dementia, theatre and dementia festivals, professional theatre companies of older people, intergenerational performance projects, multisensory programmes, play readings, and other forms of dementia-friendly theatre initiatives. This themed issue is a response to this growing field of practice. It aims to engage critically with theatre and dementia as a creative field in its own right, prompting theoretical, ethical and practical questions about the aesthetic principles of the work.