It’s been almost 20 years since Debra Oswald’s Mr Bailey’s Minder premiered in the Stables Theatre in Kings Cross in a Griffin Theatre Company production featuring rising star Kate Mulvany.

The play still feels fresh today, thanks to its timeless exploration of the ugly side of the artistic temperament and a sharply paced and performed production directed by Damien Ryan.

Leo Bailey (played by John Gaden) is a celebrated painter, a National Living Treasure and epic drunk. After decades of boozing, high living and several broken marriages, he now lives alone in a ramshackle house that’s falling down around him.

John Gaden and Claudia Ware in Mr Bailey’s Minder. Photo © Prudence Upton

Leo has at least eight children (by his own count) but none of them have anything to do with him save Margo (Rachel Gordon), an investment banker who keeps an eye on his finances and what remains of his artistic estate, much of which has leached away in shonky deals and careless gift-giving. But the old man hates being micro-managed and suspects Margo is eying off his home.

Leo has also worked his way through countless in-home carers in recent...