Festival to celebrate 70 years of NHS by touching our hearts
THE National Health Service celebrated its 70th birthday on July 5. There are a whole host of cultural events taking place this month to mark the milestone.
One of the most important developments of the 20th century will be celebrated this month with a festival throughout Wales.
It will be a fitting recognition of the 70th birthday of the National Health Service, which has its roots in Wales.
The multi-artform NHS70 Festival includes new writing, contemporary dance, music, comedy, immersive and sensory theatre.
Events and productions will be performed all over Wales, including hospitals, schools, hydrotherapy pools and arts venues.
The National Theatre Wales festival will tickle audiences’ funnybones and touch their hearts with a breadth of new work celebrating many facets of the NHS.
Here is the all-important line-up
1. AS LONG AS THE HEART BEATS
■ Outpatient Department, Royal Gwent Hospital, Newport (July 21-22, times vary) Over a year ago, National Theatre Wales asked people to share their stories and memories of the NHS.
Gathered from across Wales and the NHS, they have woven these individual threads into an immersive theatrical production featuring specially-composed music and interactive elements. As Long as the Hearts Beats journeys back through the first 70 years of the NHS and looks ahead to the next seven decades.
There are just 10 opportunities to see this life-affirming show performed in the heart of a living, working hospital.
■ Age guidance: 12+ For ticket details go to www.nationaltheatrewales.org/ntw_shows/ nhs70-long-heart-beats/
2. LAUGHTER IS THE BEST MEDICINE
■ Lyric Theatre, Carmarthen (July 21, 7.30pm) The stand-up gig will be headlined by Alan Davies (QI, Damned) and features sets from Nish Kumar, Elis James, Angela Barnes, Steve Day, Ed Gamble, Rosie Jones, Nadia Kamil, Jonny Pelham and Isy Suttie, all sharing their personal stories and observations on the theme of health.
■ Age guidance: 14+ (contains strong language) Ticket Prices: £29.50 (£27.50 concessions) For tickets go to carmarthenshiretheatres.ticketsolve.com/shows/
3. THE STICK MAKER TALES
■ Pavilion Mid Wales, Spa Road, Llandrindod Wells, Powys (July 11-12, 8pm)
■ Welshpool Town Hall, Broad Street, Welshpool, Powys (July 14, 5pm and 8pm) Shepherd Geth Roberts might be getting on in years, but he still lives alone, high in the Elan Valley above the market town of Rhayader.
He is a born storyteller, who has spent his whole life working his wild and windswept farm, hidden away in the timeless Cambrian Mountains beneath the awesome beauty of the Elan night skies, unpolluted by city lights.
But now Geth faces his greatest challenge: his sight is failing and if he can’t see then his life has no purpose – he can’t work the farm or carve the exquisite shepherd’s crooks for which he’s famous.
Peter Cox’s new one-man show, performed by Llion Williams, is a heart-warming and heart-breaking tribute to hill-farming communities across Wales and their strength, endurance and determination to survive, even when the odds against them seem impossible.
■ Age guidance: 14+ For ticket details go to boxoffice@nationaltheatrewales.org
4. FOR ALL I CARE
■ Venue 1, Georgetown, Tredegar, Blaenau Gwent, July 12-14, 8pm (and 5pm, July 14) The signs are all there that Clara is not going to have a good day. She’s woken up with a fuzzy head, a compulsive wink and can’t recall if she’s taken her medication or not.
Missing tablets will be the least of her problems if she doesn’t get herself into Ebbw Vale and grab all of the items that are on her shoplifting shopping list for Diane, aka the devil.
Mental health nurse Nyri is also not having a good time. She’s late, hungover (after a big night out with colleagues from nearby Ysbyty Aneurin Bevan) and up against a system that puts pound signs before people and a line manager who makes David Brent look like a decent bloke. Her home life in Tredegar is also complicated. Her teenage son is playing up and her mum has recently passed away.
Two women, two sets of interweaving, unexpected connections and one unforeseen collision course in the very town where the NHS began…
■ Age guidance: 14+ For tickets go to boxoffice@nationaltheatrewales.org
5. COME BACK TOMORROW
■ The Chapel, Singleton Hospital, Sketty Lane, Swansea, July 26-28, 8pm (and 5pm, July 28) Jamaica, 1952, and Gloria, 27, has a dream.
More than that. She has a vision. A strength. A calling. She is going to leave behind everything she has ever known and travel thousands of miles to answer the call of a still beleaguered, post-war UK, and become a nurse.
When she gets there – there being Swansea – nothing is as she thought it would be, but Gloria is not a woman to give up on her dreams easily.
2018 and Judy, Gloria’s granddaughter, is a nurse in Swansea. She grew up hearing her grandmother’s stories about working at the hospital and aspired to be just like her.
Depressingly for Judy, successive governments have managed to bring her beloved NHS to its knees. Much has changed since Gloria’s days, for the worse.
Today Judy is on the brink of giving it all up, of just walking away from nursing.
There’s a chance though, that if she can rekindle some of her passion for the job, for the people, the stories her grandmother shared, then she might just… come back tomorrow.
This funny and touching one-woman show brings to life two very different women, generations apart, who share a vocation and a love for a unique institution, born here in Wales.
■ Age guidance: 14+ For tickets go to boxoffice@nationaltheatrewales.org
6. SPLISH SPLASH
This immersive, interactive floating show ignites and delights every sense.
Hydrotherapy pools will be transformed into watery wonderlands by underwater lighting, clouds of bubbles drifting from below, curtains of spray, and live music played on floating instruments, with a sound that can be felt as much as heard. There will be three, distinct versions of Splish Splash:
■ one for those with profound and multiple learning disabilities;
■ one for those on the autism spectrum; and
■ one for the deafblind, with or without any cognitive impairment.
Special schools, hospices, hospitals and SEND groups can get more information and enquire about booking Splish Splash by contacting Oily Cart’s Touring Producer, Alison Garratt: alison@oilycart.org.uk
Please note, due to the unique nature of these performances, Splish Splash is not open to booking by the public. Each show is performed to an audience of two young people at a time, accompanied by their carers, and is tailored to the specific needs of each audience.
7. TOUCH
■ Pontio, Bangor University, Deiniol Road, Bangor, Gwynedd, July 27, 8pm and July 28, 2pm, 5pm and 8pm
An intriguing mixture of installation, performance and audience connection, this new work draws inspiration from the work of osteopath Julie Nioche and the testimonies of NHS staff members and patients.
Utilising a minimalistic set consisting of a large piece of paper covering a wall and stage, Touch is an invitation for people to connect through words.
Interactive and contemplative, Touch will explore the importance of physical touch as part of a patient’s care and treatment and the complex interconnecting networks of people surrounding someone’s journey from trauma to recovery. For tickets go to https://tickets. pontio.co.uk and search for “Touch”.
8. ECZEMA!
■ BBC Hoddinott Hall, Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff (July 28) 3-5pm – An afternoon of events investigating the cultural, clinical and creative life of skin and 7-7.45pm – Premiere of Maria Fusco’s ECZEMA! ECZEMA! written and directed by Maria Fusco, explores the life of a skin disease affecting an estimated 15 million people in the UK, including the writer herself.
Exploring what it is like to live in co-occupation and incessant dialogue with eczema, Fusco’s black comedy mingles itching and scratching cycles into an absurdist, celebratory score of spoken word and music.
A day of events investigating the cultural, clinical and creative life of skin. The day culminates with the premiere of Maria Fusco’s new work ECZEMA! Age Guidance: 14+