September 12th 2023 / Live

Our National Health Stories Live

Two people are sitting at a special cart called The Poetry Machine. Poet Beth Calverley sits in front of a vintage typewriter and is smiling at a person in an NHS blue uniform, both looking at a piece of paper — Image courtesy of Corbin O’Grady Studio & Art for Life

On Wednesday 22^nd November, a day-long series of performances will take place consecutively in the 19 participating Trusts across England with NHS staff, telling their stories, in their own words. Curated by Kwame Kwei-Armah, and creative team, it will stitch together the multitude of personal stories collected during the six-month creative engagement programme to create a unique portrait of an organisation through its people.

You can experience the performances in person at selected sites as well as online. Full details will be released in October.

Our National Health Stories then concludes with a very special performance at Aviva Studios in Manchester on Thursday 23^rd November. This one-off show will bring to life the stories of our NHS through music, poetry, film and dance. NHS staff will be joined on stage in Manchester by artists, musicians and performers for a powerful and moving portrait of the NHS on its 75th Anniversary, directed by Kwame Kwei-Armah, and creative team: writer Chris Bush, composer Ruth Chan and associate director Jennifer Tang, with dramaturg Teunkie Van Der Sluijs.

Tickets are free and available from the Factory International website from Friday 15th September, but don’t worry if you can’t make it – the show will also be streamed online for free.