Nurses’ lives inspire play premiering at the Edinburgh Fringe
Posted 18 August 2023 - 12:56
Children’s nurse helps to produce Tending, a new play based on interviews with more than 50 NHS nurses that asks the question: who cares for the carers?
A ‘hilarious and heartbreaking’ play written using the testimonies of NHS nurses has premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe to rave reviews.
Playwright El Blackwood was inspired by nurses’ day-to-day working lives after conversations with her friend Izzy Howes, a children’s intensive care nurse. Ms Blackwood said the NHS pay strikes and media coverage of nurses prompted her to explore the issue of who cares for carers when the system is under pressure and lives are on the line.
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‘We need to talk about nurses, now more than ever’
Drawing on more than 50 interviews with nurses, Tending explores the inner lives and physical experience of those working on the front line of healthcare.
‘The play is light-hearted, hard-hitting, shocking and funny – but that’s nursing’
Izzy Howes, children’s nurse and assistant producer of Tending
Ms Howes, who is the play’s assistant producer, told Nursing Standard: ‘El told me she wanted to put on a play this year and she wanted it to be about nurses. She said it was time, now more than ever, to talk about what nurses are going through.’
The two friends transcribed and anonymised hours of interviews, then brought the stories together to form a narrative performed by three actors, who play a palliative care, an intensive care and a children’s nurse.
‘The focus of the play was to make it as authentic as possible, that’s why it was important to use nurses’ real words,’ added Ms Howes who qualified in 2019.
‘It’s a roller coaster, from light-hearted to hard-hitting, to shocking to funny. But that’s nursing. There’s a scene based on the COVID-19 pandemic and every time I watch, it brings me to tears.’
Play wins nurses’ approval
The play, which runs until 26 August, has already received the seal of approval from nurses in the audience.
‘I had an audience member who was a nurse come up to me to tell me how real it was – that was so amazing to hear. That’s the feedback that matters the most,’ Ms Howes said.
Tending: information and tickets
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