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The Human Touch

Lessons from the Crimea!                       

Florence Nightingale makes a guest appearance in Operating Theatre’s latest newly commissioned play.

Her appearance is less odd bearing in mind the subject of the play which is infection, the speciality of Nightingale in the Crimea where before she arrived almost half of the soldiers were dying not from their wounds, horrendous as they were, but from the filthy conditions of the hospital.

The play, The Human Touch, was commissioned by the North East Strategic Health Authority for the Health Care Associated Infection conference in Billingham on July 7 attended by a hundred health care workers, commissioners and policy makers from all over the region.

Operating Theatre was specifically asked to produce a play focussing on the patient experience. In the play the patient, Terry Clark, has caught MRSA after a gall bladder operation, and now feels utterly isolated cooped up as he is alone in his own private room and prey to his fears. 

His situation is not improved firstly by his male friends who view MRSA as something worthy of a science fiction film, and therefore prefer to send messages via Terry’s mobile phone than visit, but more so by his wife Deborah who views Terry’s situation as the next best thing to a winning lottery ticket and is now intent on suing the hospital.

The  play — the title comes from Terry’s observation that the only hands that touch him now are encased in latex gloves —  is  humorous as well as thought-provoking and was enthusiastically received by the audience. It was presented in the usual Operating Theatre way with a hot-seating workshop afterwards in which the audience had the chance to cross-question both Terry and Florence   — but in particular Terry — about their experiences.

Conference organisers were delighted with the play and with what they described as ‘ the fantastic feedback’ from delegates. The Operating Theatre session, play and hot-seating scored highly in an evaluation of the conference carried out afterwards.  Quotes from the audience included ‘ a very good idea, different, entertaining,’ and ‘ a creative way of getting the message across and an excellent debate which followed.’

The Human Touch offers a good example of how quickly Operating Theatre can produce a new play when required to do so being researched, written, cast and presented to the conference within two months of the first approach from the North East Strategic Health Authority.

Actors Gary Kitchen as Terry and Arabella Arnott as Florence Nightingale answer questions from the audience in the 'hot-seating' led by Dominic Slowie following the performance.