Theatre - the best way to learn ...

Pardon me, while I stay local - in Liverpool . . . 

I've always been interested in drama since school days (aged 13-14) and playing Francis Nurse in Arthur Miller's Crucible. Recent reading (inc. Theatre of the Absurd, The Shifting Point), see 'drama' - with more to follow) encouraged me to find out more. As a community mental health nurse on a visit, I've sometimes thought of this script being written as we engage with each other. Framed within  interpersonal skills and the society 'outside', there's a sense in which a screenplay is also writ large. 

The fact of whether the session is therapeutic, progressive, person-centred, structured, ethical, purposeful, has tea and custard creams ... is the drama of course.

In a way the creators of formal psychotherapies are playwrights - directors:

After all, they keep producing 'original' therapy manuals, don't they?

In the new year I noticed a community message about a theatre group Valley Theatre Group, planning a 'Living Newspaper' for a drama festival that took place last month. There is another performance next month in Liverpool, as per the edited message below:

People have been asking what’s going on and when for our Hope Street performances June 6-8^th. So here’s the details.

We start each evening with the play about a 1930s Socialist Theatre group, “Unity”. (Cast: Peter Merrill, Ted Grant, Steve Donegan, Meggan Pye, Day Sheehan and Donna Lauder)

Then, on Friday 6 June, in the second half, we have our first Living Newspaper. This is the one that has most of the sketches submitted by outside writers and developed at the workshops. Then on Saturday 7th, second half, we have the Leverhulme group (The one that won the award at the festival) with their Living Newspaper. Finally, on Sunday 8^th, in the second half, we have the last of the Living Newspapers, the one with slightly longer pieces like Scouse Man. This final one also has an original sketch from a 1930s Living Newspaper, the Munich Pact.

Tickets are on sale at the Hope Street Theatre website (link below) and from Ticket Quarter. Please come along and try to get other people along as well.  It'll be a good night's theatre! 

Thanks for all your support. The WTM team

Ticket link:  www.hopestreettheatre.com

Phone: 0344 561 0622

Entry to the Theatre of Nursing & Space

I do understand that reading theatre related texts, joining a theatre group, my writing a play is still pi in the sky. It's the journey, that's all. In Hodges' model I've differentiated between structure and content. This is the center of the stage about which Hodges' model turns. In the guided discovery by which students and audiences can discover the model,  these are the bases to touch in turn.

Sir Alan's focus on construction in writing: is narrative, time, location, characters (p.12). The overall message for me is, the frequently uttered - less is more. I must take heed and listen. During Ayckbourn's career, he has encountered the full retinue of writers and directors young and 'experienced'. Reading this, it is nice to be both 'new old-er' -

'Then there is the new old playwright. Far more difficult to deal with. They have probably nursed this script for twenty-five years and they're damned if you're going to mess it up for them when they've waited so long. Especially someone your age who wasn't even born when their harrowing play about World War Two was still raging, dammit.' p.110. (My emphasis in bold.)

Thinking about 1959 and the start of Sir Alan's career, his reference to WWII, made me recall nursing assistant and student nurse studies and placements at Winwick Hospital in 1977. On the geriatric wards for entertainment it was WWI songs were often sung, or records played. Long players, indeed.

In health we are usually accustomed to stopping before the 'true' end, with the exception of palliative care, although even then the ending should be 'better' than what it would otherwise have been.

If I am nursing Hodges' model, I've been doing so ever since 1987-88. As Sir Alan also observes of writers, while passionate about the utility of the model - my project - not my model; I am filled with self-doubt. Is this an over-valued idea - in my hands (and mind!)?

In other reading - Stagecraft. The Complete Guide To Theatrical Practice, by Griffiths Trevor R. 1982, I came across the word 'proscenium'.

'Incidentally, when we came to stage [the play in question is 'Woman in Mind' PJ] the London proscenium version this was far more difficult to achieve. Proscenium theatres generally make scenic statements whether they want to or not; the round makes none unless called upon to do so.' p.32. 

There are many insights into sets, design, and the various pros and cons. In May and earlier this month, with three other cast members I performed a role 8-9mins in a Living Newspaper (40-50 mins in total). It was fascinating to watch the various aspects developing from the initial reading in January. With Hodges' model an idea, the question of set design is not straight forward. But as with over-valued ideas, I am probably over-thinking (as usual) making things more complicated than necessary.

One golden nugget of advice, is if you are the writer and write well, well you don't have to think the set design. That is a problem for someone else to solve. Hopefully you will be impressed by the interpretation and realisation (often in film credits) of your work.

That is, unless you're unlucky and find yourself on the receiving end of Obvious Rule No. 13:

Beware of competitive set designers, particularly those with a 'concept'.

The name Ayckbourn is synonomous with The Stephen Joseph Theatre, which is in the round:

'The Round provides a truly unique experience as the audience is seated all around the stage. Not only does the audience see the performance from every angle, it also brings the actor into the same space as the audience.'

"Let’s have the actors in the same room as the audience, let’s have four front rows, let’s get really excited about this acting business!"

Stephen Joseph, 1959 - https://sjt.uk.com/about-us

From the mid-1980s and 90s I used to visit Bolton's Octagon quite regularly. Performances were frequently in the round. Last month, Abigail's Party was too (the last night).

Whatever, the staging, set, I'd be interested to see the 'concept'. On directing:

'As regards interpretation. you may need to tread more warily. As I said earlier, many playwrights are not naturally theatre creatures - certainly they are rarely visual theatre creatures, I have seen them sit there and watch their play physically anfold with a look of total amazement. pordering sometimes on delight, sometimes on dismay. What was in their head has been made three-dimensional flesh.' p.111.

Space has been and remains fundamental to my thinking about Hodges' model. Even pushing the envelope to topology, this is well beyond my ken. But not other gifted researchers. Hodges' model provides inter- multi- transdisciplinary bridges: we need to Before the time of schools becoming fenced and patrolled sites, we used to play cricket, tennis and football. There was a large wall at front of a former school, great for tennis, but not return of serve. Now a projection shared in the round - so everyone sees the same thing (yes, another rule!) might hold potential. There's acknowledgement that technology moves on too (p.123). And room for comedy, Ayckbourn's starting point. 

'Designers, it has been said, even the best of them, sometimes get hold of the wrong end of the stick. ... Always get to look at drawings, ground plans and, most helpfully, scale models of what they intend.' p.120.

The Crafty Art of Playmaking by Alan Ayckbourn. Faber, 2004, softcover, ISBN 0571215106.

https://www.concordtheatricals.co.uk/s/45898/the-crafty-art-of-playmaking

Normansfield Theatre in Teddington

Normansfield Theatre in Teddington

'My favourite building is the amazing Normansfield Theatre in Teddington that John Langdon Down (1828-1896) built to provide positive and stimulating education for learning disabled people (Down syndrome is named after him). At a time when most disabled people would have been shut away in horrific asylums, Down adapted his own house as a residential home, and built a beautiful theatre for creative rehabilitation. It's one of the few surviving private theatres from the period, with original painted scenery and other ornate fixtures, recently remodelled. For me, it's also a reminder of how the wealthy often used their money for good causes, which feels less common now. Jos Boys, guest curator and co-director of The DisOrdinary Architecture Project'

My source: The pick of London Open House. House&Home, FTWeekend. 6/7 September 2025. p.8.

Image: Langdon Down Centre

Previously: 'learning disability' : 'theatre' : 'architecture'

Theatre in TI:ME

The Crafty Art of Playmaking

In health we're dealing with time in all its forms: cardinal; birth and death and all that happens in-between. Aka, 'life', illness, and palliative care. And, even if not recognised, chronological and pathological time, which policymakers should pay more attention to. The art of theatre, has its time (p.20): stage time, and real (theatre foyer) time. 

'At its most successful, theatre views things from a human standabout.' (p.9). 

I'd second that, especially allied with the notions (ideas!) of health career, and life chances. 

Since the publication of TCAoP in 2004 people seem to quite ready to dispense, disregard, downplay, demote the humanistic with the rise of AI and assisted dying for the terminally ill (of course).

Time recurs - as a frame. (p.25) with a touch of elective surgery. 'Think of your story as a piece of thread. Where you cut in is the point at which the lights come on in Act One. Where you cut out will be your final curtain. (There may be a knot or two in the middle to denote the intervals, too.)' p.25.

In the first post re. TCAoP I stressed the complexity, plethora of ideas that Hodges' model can create. Sir Alan provides a potential 'get of jail free card' (or as near as?) in his original rule no. 9. 

'If a play can be too simple, it can also be too complicated. If one element is particularly complicated, keep the rest of it simple.' (p.25).

Very useful advice! But achieving it when having and applying an idea is another matter.

What's this though? Step back to original rule no. 6:

'There is no hard and fast rule as to which constructional element comes first.' (p.20).

Butrint National Park Albania   

In the guided discovery exercise in students (audiences..) creating the model, there are two constructional elements, that also contribute to the one big idea.

It gets better! Original rule no. 14:

At least fifty per cent of your play is going to be visual. (p.33).

I must make sure I don't confuse concept/ual with visual/imagery.

More to follow.

The Crafty Art of Playmaking by Alan Ayckbourn. Faber, 2004, softcover, ISBN 0571215106.

https://www.concordtheatricals.co.uk/s/45898/the-crafty-art-of-playmaking

'Drama classes help GPs handle difficult patients' c/o BBC

'Hull Truck Theatre has just won the Innovation prize at the Stage Awards for their new training scheme for GPs. Associate Director Tom Saunders and GP Dr Eman Shamsaee discuss why drama classes are helping doctors treat patients.' 

BBC Radio 4 'Front Row' https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002q2jz (15 mins ...)

◇

Holly Phillips, East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire and Ian Youngs, Culture Reporter

Published - 21 January 2026

'A theatre company is using drama training to help doctors deal with challenging patients.

Hull Truck Theatre's classes feature actors performing difficult GP consultations, with GPs giving feedback before taking over the consultation themselves.

The theatre recently won the Innovation Award at the Stage Awards for the programme.

Dr Eman Shamsaee, who has taken part in the training scheme, described it as a "really creative way of doing GP training".'

BBC News:  Drama classes help GPs handle difficult patients

INDIVIDUAL

|

 INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

HUMANISTIC --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

SOCIOLOGY  :   POLITICAL 

|

GROUP

The training programme has completed its pilot stage and is now in the delivery phase

A reminder of co-working to deliver STORM training with a Clinical Psychologist colleague. 

See also: 'communication' : 'primary care' : 'GP' : 'drama'

Theatre - which one?

Summer reading includes Ayckbourne's The Crafty Art of Playmaking published in 2004. Already half way through, writing has been covered, directing follows.

Looking at what I can learn in contrasting health and theatre, there is more than both laying claim to having a 'theatre'. Perhaps health got there first in a very primitive, existential, and fundamental sense. The 'theatre of war' covering battle, and the fight for food and survival. Even as civilisation emerged, on the battle field, triage was practised in a more deliberate way with skills that were built on emerging knowledge handed down orally - to become art.

So, no doubt there was a concurrency going on. Heroics in so many guises, shared around the fire. Plus, our individual dreams and nightmares that are framed collectively.

Ayckbourn offer pithy lessons learned over his career that began in 1959. There's an acting maxim:

'When playing a miser, stress his generosity.'

So can we restate the acting maxim as:

'When playing a patient, stress their strengths'?

Or. 'When playing a patient, stress their personhood'? . . .

If that is a challenge to the healthcare sector (even if unintended), then it is one that is actually long-standing. There are the three R's: rehabilitation, reablement and recovery.

Ayckbourn explains how the darker the subject the more a writer needs to find the light. And vice-versa. This suits me fine, and medicine is recognised as a great source of humour across several cultures.

The book lists a series of  'Obvious Rules' all numbered. 

Of No. 1: Born in Liverpool, I never would look down on comedy; and never as a poor cousin of drama.

After reading his obvious Rule No. 2, 'Never start a play without an idea'; I put my pants back on.

Do I have an idea? Oh my! Well Brian's at least.

In a way it's the other way around. The shout goes up - "Eratosthenes! Please pass me a sieve."

On having an idea, Ayckbourn writes: 'They assume, I think, that if they start the journey, maybe an idea will occur on the way. Perhaps a map of where they're going will blow in through the car window. In my experience this never happens.' p.6.

This is good advice, with the additional complication of having many maps, and yes, none: c/o Hodges' model. I need a theme, a situation and a thread. I'm writing a few ideas down. And helpfully Sir Alan advises not to throw ideas away. He describes, from experience how disparate things can come together.

Today (19th), I finished TCAoP here in Corfu. A great help for me, that is, the writing section pp.3-96; as I will try to explain in further posts. Sooner than expcted, I've started a book that will be a 'review'. 

A visit to Albania tomorrow - early start pick-up 0710.

The Crafty Art of Playmaking by Alan Ayckbourn. Faber, 2004, softcover, ISBN 0571215106.
https://www.concordtheatricals.co.uk/s/45898/the-crafty-art-of-playmaking

ii "Nye" | Full Show [now ended] | National Theatre at Home

Watching yesterday on YouTube, I enjoyed NYE and was challenged by it personally and as a grandfather, son, nurse and tax-payer.

It wasn't all sweetness and light regards Aneurin "Nye" Bevin's character. Politically, he clearly pushed boundaries in response to the values he carried on his sleeve. As the family's of many health care professionals may recognise, needs outside the family can be prioritised at the family's cost. The theory-practice gap is expressed in so many ways. 

Whether by intent, or accident, the play points to the timeless challenge of social care and women's role in delivery of this care. This strikes home in the drama not just as care of the elderly, but being confronted (alone) with the slow, painful dying of a loved-one; and the reality of occupational diseases - 'black lung'. Women are exploited as carers, their hearts and feet may as well be bound; in the same way the mine owners exploited the workers. There was a stark reminder for me, of how continuity of care is often lacking today.

Nye becomes personal, as even up to 1970s working class parents would have worried, did worry about the prospect of their (invariably male - with some exceptions?) offspring going down the pit, especially in Lancashire and Yorkshire. Watching and listening to this you can appreciate how education was seen a passport to alternative white-collar work. My paternal grandfather worked in a slate quarry. I recall many invites to punch him in the 'stomach': a slate wall. He walked quite a few miles to work and wasn't that old when he died; although he (soon) followed grandma J.

For quite a while I've been drawn to the theatre. Aged 15 I was Francis Nurse - yes, the irony - in the school play, Arthur Miller's, The Crucible. It was Miss Smith, a drama teacher who first brought my attention to the idea of 'social awareness'. I recall Miss Clayton too who was a student teacher. On visits to London I've been struck by the relevance of Ibsen today. 

If there were to be a play in me, perhaps 'Axes and Crosses' must be-up-there as a working title? For  my father the 11+ exam was the icon to ward off the evil that was work down a mine; or lying under a an excavator / crane at 0400 to get the machine fixed for the shift due to start. The 11+ and need to pass this has provided its own anxiety, burden, and it must be said - motivation not just for me, but many more senior adults. I can see this now. So thank you Tim Price, National Theatre and Nye (2025!) for many further insights into stagecraft. 

See also:
https://www.bohs.org/media-resources/press-releases/detail/deadly-lung-disease-in-uk-kitchen-worktop-workers-is-avoidable/

September 2024: 'The Lightest Element'
https://www.hampsteadtheatre.com/whats-on/2024/the-lightest-element/

Previously:
What wright to care?

drama (theatre), arts

Book: "The Empty Space"

The Empty Space, Peter Brook

 In July I caught up with Mr Brian Hodges who created Hodges' model. Having met previously in November 2013 we agreed not to leave it as long next time and so I returned on 7th October.

One question I had was whether in addition to Hughes there were any other influences that led Brian to the model overall?

Brian could not recall a specific reference, but mentioned the theatre being an influence. I, in turn had picked up a second-hand book on one of several recent trips to London, but the title evaded me. Once home I checked and the book is "The Empty Space" by Peter Brook. A Gower Street bargain at £4.99. Brian also checked and emailed to confirm this is the book on his shelf too.

While in London (and elsewhere) I try to visit the theatre and  now look for performances of Ibsen's plays. Whatever I do see, A Doll's House this month, before the performance starts the set design is always intriguing. I've posted on this before, Hodges' model providing a 'stage set', one that should the play require can include the operating theatre.

As a mental health nurse the themes of Ibsen's plays still resonate today. From the performances I have attended the public finds ongoing relevance in: The Master Builder, Ghosts, The Lady from the Sea, Rosmersholm, Hedda Gabler and An Enemy of the People. This is true of the work by others. The drama of life and death that Hodges' model can also stage.

Brian emailed me about a situation that stood out for him in the book, so I will revisit this. What caught my eye is the cover of Brook's book (and yes, the graphic first). Without even opening the book, the 'scene' is (possibly?) set on the book's cover "A Book About the Theatre: Deadly, Holy, Rough, Immediate" ...

 individual

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ----------------------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group - population

Holy	Immediate
Rough	Deadly

Hughes, E. (1958) Men and their work. New York: Free Press. (Hughes was used by Brian to define ‘health career’ the idea of life chances.)

'Theatre' by Caroline Walker

Individual

|

      INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

HUMANISTIC  --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

 SOCIOLOGY  :    POLITICAL 

|

Group

'Theatre' by Caroline Walker

Image source: 
https://www.inglebygallery.com/news/7465-caroline-walker-the-scottish-national-portrait-gallery-theatre/

line of sight (seeing is believing) : 'care' : 'community' : 'theatre'

My source:
Harriet Baker, PAINT, FEED & PLAY, FT Weekend, Magazine. July 12 2025.  #1,133, pp.46-52.

https://www.ft.com/content/6e50181b-689e-4cd5-b084-37b311446e94

Great read too. The exhibition moves to Pallant House Gallery, Chichester from November 22nd.

Caroline Walker: Mothering. The Hepworth Wakefield. 17 May - 26 October 2025

https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/artists/caroline-walker

Play - “The Ballad of Crooked Lane” 6th & 7th Oct.

Media Release - 

Blind Poet’s Life to be Celebrated in New Play. 

The life of Edward Rushton, Blind Poet and key figure in the Campaign against Slavery, will be spotlighted in a new production by Valley Theatre Drama Group in Liverpool. The play – entitled “The Ballad of Crooked Lane” – is set on the day Rushton, now well into middle age, awaits eye surgery to regain his sight. While waiting, he goes over his eventful life with his friend and biographer, William Shepherd, the Minister of Gateacre Chapel.

“Rushton was a larger-than-life character,” says writer and director Tom Mclennan. “The story is that he lost his sight going below deck to help sick African captives on their way to the plantations. I first read about him in Bill Hunter’s biography “Unsung Hero” and have always felt his life deserves more recognition.”

Apart from campaigning against the slave trade – not always a popular thing to do in those days, since a large amount of Liverpool’s wealth was based on the evil triangular trade – Rushton was also instrumental in establishing the Liverpool School for the Blind, one of the first in the country, as well as being at the forefront of efforts to end the notorious pressgangs that terrorised coastal neighbourhoods, intent on kidnapping sailors for the British Navy.

“The Ballad of Crooked Lane” will be performed as part of a double bill along with Day Sheehan’s “Wake” for the Liverpool Fringe on Monday October 6th, 7.30pm, at Valley Theatre n Netherley, and on Tuesday 7th October, 7.30pm, at The Studio Beyond, 63 Wood Street, Liverpool L1 4AL

Entrance for the Valley Theatre event is free (pay a donation if you like it). Tickets for the Studio Beyond are £8/£6 and can be bought from:

https://store.makeitwrite.org/product/balladandwake/

I read a part for this at Valley Theatre, very interesting and will look to see a performance.

See also: Edward Rushton: Who was this blind revolutionary?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-ouch-29957645

My source: https://www.philosophyinpubs.co.uk/

Currently reading, Arnold Wesker's 'The Friends'.
https://www.arnoldwesker.com/plays/the-friends/index.html

Being constantly rational - in pursuit of evidence . . .

. . . while being chased by the absurd . . .

Individual

|

      INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

HUMANISTIC  --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

 SOCIOLOGY  :    POLITICAL 

|

Group

Descartes’ - cogito ergo sum^ A psychological case formulation for ...?	(Being constantly …) rational^ ... in pursuit of evidence
Drama: A case formulation for the audience.	Absurd: When £££$$$ meets health  - the where of when the audience aren't interested in the how, and why of the case formulation.

The theatre of the absurd does not need language.

Hodges' model?

In absurd terms the structure must go! No ifs ands or buts ...
Replace the intellectual concepts with poetic images
 but before you do optimise for distance from sense. 

"In the Theatre of the Absurd, the audience is confronted with actions that lack apparent motivation, characters that are in constant flux, and often happenings that are clearly outside the realm of rational* experience. Here, too, the audience can ask 'What is going to happen next?' But then anything may happen next, so that the answer to this question cannot be worked out according to the rules of ordinary probability based on motives and characterizations that will remain constant throughout the play. The relevant question here is not so much what is going to happen next but what is happening? 'What does the action of the play represent?'" Esslin. (p.416).

*and relational?

^D’ANDREA, F. (2017). BEING HUMAN. A FEW REMARKS ABOUT DESCARTES’ COGITO ERGO SUM. Studi Di Sociologia, 55(2), 135–146. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26479662

Esslin, Martin. Chapter 8 The Significance of the Absurd. The Theatre of the Absurd. London: Pelican, 1982. (3rd Ed.).

Previously: relational - rational

Chairs and Beds: The Theatre of the Absurd [balance!]

Hodges' model: Stages of Care/Despair

Individual
|

      INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

HUMANISTIC  --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

 SOCIOLOGY  :    POLITICAL 

|

Group

Beds needed for 'treatment' mental illness and physical, preparedness for public health events. Reduced beds for 'modern medicine', sustainable health care, reflecting health education, preventive approaches and improved health literacy (. . .?).

NHS hospital beds data analysis We look at NHS bed data in England compared to other countries, bed stocks over time, the impact of COVID-19, safety breaches and intensive care capacity.

"The Theatre of the Absurd, on the other hand, tends toward a radical devaluation of language, toward a poetry that is to emerge from the concrete and objectified images of the stage itself. The element of language still plays an important part in this conception, but what happens on the stage transcends, and often contradicts, the words spoken by the characters. In Ionesco's The Chairs, for example, the poetic content of a powerfully poetic play doe not lie in the banal words that are uttered but in the fact that they are spoken to an ever-growing number of empty chairs." p.26.

Bed Availability and Occupancy – KH03 "Bums on seats" (Lecture theatres)

Esslin, Martin. The theatre of the absurd. London: Pelican, 1982. (3rd Ed.).

In Theatre, Silence is a genre, and therapeutic ally

'As a playwright it may be your intention to build a vehicle to take us to the stars. But do make sure you have people aboard.' (p.9).^
Alan Ayckbourn in The Crafty Art of Playmaking.

Sound of silence in activism

Quite fitting in the two decades since publication, given the rise of AI and the impact upon the arts, specifically human imagination, creativity, and livelihoods. Meaning: silence as a tool for protest, and activism is also a genre and a can be a therapuetic ally. 

Going backwards - Sir Alan writes: 'Theatre for me has always been, in a way, a reflection of life writ somewhat smaller'. p.10.

While the point concerns the faith and trust placed in theatre directors by the company, there is an analogue in healthcare. The belief of the patient, in their doctor and the medical team. Or, at least the knowledge and skills they should, and appear to possess. For Ayckbourn '... the director looked as if he knew.' (p.10).

Obvious rule no. 4: 'Use the minimum number of characters that you need' (p.13).

What can I say? Society, has peeled back the patient - doctor (substitute health profession as needed) to the person whose monologue seeks confirmation of illness x,y, or z. Apparently here in the UK 1 in 4 adults have a mental health condition. The debate is ongoing as to what is going on. But the subject of Hodges' model as a possible crucible for a work of drama can certainly keep to character count down.

Not only that, but is this a book on counselling - interpersonal skills?

'An audience that doesn't care stops listening in the end. '. p.14. 

As part of -

'Obvious Rule no. 5: They need to care about your characters. (So you should too.)'

So, for both playwrights and carewrights, there is a duty of care (for all of course - despite the actions of so many governments).

In health the patient is the character study. There is, should be, must be - a plan of  care, a care plan. As a 'play', Hodges' model begins as a template of at least five acts [Spiritual (Four domains) ]. That is whether or not they are all 'written'. The attitude though should be unconditional positive regard.

There's no Waiting for Godot here, unless the character is social care?

Could it be that as organisational hierarchies have been flattened, the notion of character has been under siege? The onion that is our identity, personality, persona unpicked, skin-by-skin by social media, social change, and policy affecting education. Character building used to be a thing didn't it? No longer needed now is it?

Sir Alan, supports this hypothesis in his 'Obvious Rule No. 28:

People in general are reluctant to reveal themselves.' (p.65).

I still wonder about the potential of Hodges' model in secondary level education. More than ever, with all the talk about resilience, recovery, mental health issues, the rising UK welfare bill, may beg the question: What is character today? But, it is not defined by a stiff upper lip.

Not to sound 'ableist', but the 'crafty' in Ayckbourn's title, can be read in health terms; the disciplines drawing on science and the arts. Plus, they involve craft - use of the self, empathy and rapport. Not limited to, but in mental health care, it could be 'crafty' in the exercise of power, so frequently a theme central in drama and the human condition.

^A nice reminder too, of a Poul Anderson's SF classic Tau Zero (and a previous post).

The Crafty Art of Playmaking by Alan Ayckbourn. Faber, 2004, softcover, ISBN 0571215106.

https://www.concordtheatricals.co.uk/s/45898/the-crafty-art-of-playmaking

https://www.isthiswhatwewant.com/

Image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b0/Is_This_What_We_Want%3F.jpg/250px-Is_This_What_We_Want%3F.jpg

https://www.amazon.com/Zero-Coronet-Books-Poul-Anderson/dp/0340163364

"Public Domain" - The Vaudeville Theatre

individual

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ----------------------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group

Public Domain is a dark, funny, verbatim musical about the internet: Those who own it; those who live in it; and YOU! Following an acclaimed digital debut at Southwark Playhouse this thrilling, new British musical, composed entirely from the real-life words of YouTube vloggers, Instagram influencers, Facebook’s tech giants, and everyday internet users now has its live world premiere in the West End. Written and performed by the hugely talented Francesca Forristal (Oddball) and Jordan Paul Clarke (Showstopper! The Improvised Musical), this blackly comic musical follows two teenage influencers; Millie (sporty spice, health guru, buddha bowls – millennial) and Z (GCSEs existential dread, swag – generation Z), as well as featuring exclusive ‘footage’ of inside Mark Zuckerberg and wife Priscilla Chan’s family home… You’re gonna get their honest, true selves… with some serious bass, obvs. Authentic, right? Remember, it’s like ‘Black Mirror’ but real and set to music. The Vaudeville Theatre operates strictly under the government COVID-19 guidelines. For further information check our COVID-19 secure information page. All bookings in a party must only be from the same household or the legally defined support bubble.

#HelloMyNameIs ... Socrates^

INDIVIDUAL

|

 INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

HUMANISTIC --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

SOCIOLOGY  :   POLITICAL 

|

GROUP

The Last Days of Socrates*
	Cancelling Socrates

Overview

“They say Pericles caught democracy from you in bed.”

Today, Socrates is revered as the founding father of Western philosophy. But in 399BC Athens, he was a pain in the neck. The plague is over, democracy is (just about) restored, and everyone would like to get back to normal. How hard is it for one ageing firebrand to stop asking questions? It’s time to shut him up…

Based on eyewitness accounts, Cancelling Socrates is a provocative, witty and dangerous world premiere from Howard Brenton, one of our foremost dramatists, whose acclaimed plays have been staged at the National Theatre, RSC, Shakespeare’s Globe, and worldwide. He reunites with our Artistic Director, Tom Littler.

My sources: 'Front Row' BBC Radio 4, 9 June 2022.

Images - c/o Penguin and Nick Hern Books (https://www.nickhernbooks.co.uk/cancelling-socrates)

Jermyn Street Theatre - text (as per links).

*(Just) A philosopher.

^You can play here too.

There is a play in #h2cm

#HelloMyNameIs #aPlay too,

Beware of the Concept

Yesterday Alan Ayckbourn's gold-nugget-laden book -

The Crafty Art of Playmaking by Alan Ayckbourn. Faber, 2004, softcover, ISBN 0571215106.
https://www.concordtheatricals.co.uk/s/45898/the-crafty-art-of-playmaking 

- found a new owner. Beforehand, I turned up the following helpful advice (or, 'obvious rules'): 

ix Introduction

'The following is an attempt to describe, as far as I can, this double process [writing and directing, PJ]. Some of it is quite probably unique to me and contains procedures and practices that it would be highly unwise for others to try and copy. The rest is really just plain common sense. But if I've learnt anything it is that it never hurts to point out the obvious occasionally, certainly in the theatre - to actors, directors or writers and sometimes even to designers, stage managers and technicians. Often we quite wrongly suspect simplicity. We go digging around in the creative sand trying to make.our art more meaningful, somehow 'deeper'. Generally all we do is end up with our heads entirely buried, presenting the audience with our rear ends.'

Obvious Rule No. 3
If you don't have the initial inspiration, put down the pen,put the pencil back in the jar, switch off the computer and go and dig the garden instead.
.. 
'At its most successful, theatre views things from a human standpoint. It is after all the most human in scale of all the performance media. My feeling is that that's also a good place for a dramatist to start, at the human level. As a playwright it may be your intention to build a vehicle to take us to the stars. But do make sure you have people aboard.

Initial inspiration - that essential starting point - comes in all shapes and sizes.' p..9.

Obvious Rule No. 49
Beware of the Concept.

DIRECTING

'Don't be talked into anything you feel instinctively you'll regret later. If you must have a concept (God save us from that word) then let the concept be something that's worked out between you. Let it spring from the play and not from the fact that the production manager has 5oo square metres of black lino left over from their last production. I once heard the fateful words, 'I think it's about time we did something with mirrors.' If at all possible, try and persuade the producer, whoever it is, to let you make as many scenic decisions as late on as possible. There will always be an intense pressure to decide everything before you start. This can be fatal.' pp.118-19.

In pencil I noted: 'Hodges' model is different. So, don't panic.' Is it? Really?

I've saved this for the last: 

'Then there is the new old playwright. Far more difficult to deal with. They have probably nursed this script for twenty-five years and they're damned if you're going to mess it up for them when they've waited so long. Especially someone your age who wasn't even born when their harrowing play about World War Two was still raging, dammit.' p.110.

It's not that I believe I'm a (potential) playwright, it's the learning.

See also: 'Ayckbourn' : 'drama'

Dramatherapy iii - A Specification for Care: Nye

Individual
|

      INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

HUMANISTIC  --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

 SOCIOLOGY  :    POLITICAL 

|

Group

"Classical psychodrama requires five instruments, the stage, the subject, the director, the auxiliary egos and the audience. Although Moreno frequently stated that psychodrama could take place in many natural settings, he advocated the use of a stage of his own design, circular, 12-15 feet in diameter, 1-2 feet high with two surrounding stepped lower levels, seating for the audience, a 'Juliet' gallery and equipment for varying the colour and brightness of the lighting. This format was was aimed at providing a space and generating an atmosphere in which the subject could rise up to move and act with increased freedom and imagination. 'The locus of a psychodrama, if necessary, may be designated everywhere, wherever the patients are, the field of battle, the class-room or the private home. But the ultimate resolution of deep mental conflicts requires an objective setting, the therapeutic theatre. ...'". p.107-108.

Nye - National Theatre

Davies, M.H. Dramatherapy and Psychodrama, Chap. 5. pp.104-123. In Jennings, S. (Ed.), (1987) Dramatherapy. Theory and Practice for Teachers and Clinicians. Routledge, London. p.106.

Interactive Radio Drama Training - Theatre for a Change - Online

From: Ryan Borcherding

Learn how to produce Interactive Radio Drama (IRD) for a wide range of gender, SRHR, SGBV and COVID-19 behaviour change and advocacy objectives.

IRD is a unique social and behaviour change communication tool from Theatre for a Change. It has been used in multiple countries since 2010 to improve the sexual and reproductive health and rights of marginalised and vulnerable women and girls, with documented results.

IRD enables audiences to call in to the radio station and replace the main character in the radio drama, to show what they could do differently to change the story for the better. It enables behaviour change and advocacy to happen on a large scale. In Malawi, we reach over 550,000 listeners through interactive broadcasts each week.

We are now offering online training in our IRD approach to enable other organisations to use IRD in their gender, SRHR, SGBV and COVID-19 behaviour change and advocacy work.

To view the full course outline, including eligibility requirements, please see www.tfacafrica.com/online-training

For more information, please contact Ryan Borcherding on ryan.borcherding AT tfacafrica.com

Ryan Borcherding

My source:

The Communication Initiative Network

Nye | Full Show | Free (until 11th Nov) | National Theatre @home

Further to a post earlier this year regarding a play - 

Dramatherapy iii - A Specification for Care: Nye

- the play Nye is available to watch for free UNTIL 11th NOV 

on the National Theatre's YouTube channel (with Michael Sheen as Nye Bevan)

https://youtu.be/hpN--d5bXSY?si=yHiiXn1ZhN2_NDnP


My source: Politics of Health Group Mail List Messages

Visit the PoHG website for lots of interesting links and publications: http://www.pohg.org.uk/

Visit PoHG on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/282761111845400

Follow us on Twitter: @pohguk

I walked by the NT this afternoon on the way to Bankside Gallery.

'Un Caso Clinico' BUZZATI (I906-I972)

Reading The Theatre of the Absurd earlier this year was a very enjoyable and disconcerting experience. In acknowledgement: I have quoted from the book at length below. I do so to better convey the context, and in the hope other people may similarly obtain and enjoy this classic theatrical text.

Reading, I was reminded of starting my career as a nursing assistant and student nurse, and the 'lock-up' wards: male and female. Listening now to the current Reith Lectures I will post regards: 

Gwen Adshead - Four Questions about Violence

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0025cmg

As a community mental health nurse in community mental health teams and nursing home liaison, residents on the ground floor (of two or three floors - with 'general') 'knew' there were very poorly people on the top floor. In summer, windows open, they could often be heard shouting and in the night. Inside, for staff, family members, friends became advocates expressing concern for a lack of access to fresh air and sunshine. Something, of course, we can all benefit from. For some residents there was an in-house understanding of NOT wanting to be moved 'upstairs'. At times I gather, if a resident 'played up' such re-location (displacement) was used as a threat: a cue for education.^

DINO BUZZATI (I906-I972)

'In Les Bátisseurs d'Empire the flight from death takes the form of trying to escape upwards. The same image appears in the opposite direction in a remarkable play by Dino Buzzati, the eminent Italian novelist and journalist on the staff of the Corriere della Sera in Milan. This play, first performed by the Piccolo Teatro, Milan, in 1953, and in Paris in an adaptation by Camus in 1955, is Un Caso Clinico. In two parts (thirteen scenes), it shows the death of a middle-aged businessman, Giovanni Corte. Busy, overworked, tyrannized but pampered as the family's breadwinner, whose health must be preserved, he is disturbed by hallucinations of a female voice calling him from the distance and by the spectre of a woman that seems to haunt his house. He is persuaded to consult a famous specialist, and goes to see him at his ultra-modern hospital. Before he knows what has happened, he is an inmate of the hospital, about to be operated on. Everybody reassures him - this hospital is organized in the most efficient modern manner; the people who are not really ill, or merely under observation, are on the top floor, the seventh. Those who are slightly less well are on the sixth; those who are ill, but not really badly, are on the fifth; and so on downwards in a descending order to the first floor, which is the antechamber of death.

In a terrifying sequence of scenes, Buzzati shows his hero's descent. At first he is moved to the sixth floor, merely to make room for someone who needs his private ward more than does. Further down, he still hopes that he is merely going down to be near some specialized medical facilities he needs, and before he has fully realized what has happened, he is so far down that there is no hope of escape. He is buried among the outcasts who have already been given up, the lowest class of human beings - the dying. Corte's mother comes to take him home, but it is too late.

Un Caso Clinico is a remarkable and highly original work, a modern miracle play in the tradition of Everyman. It dramatizes the death of a rich man - his delusion that somehow he is in a special class, exempt from the ravages of illness; his gradual loss of contact with reality; and, above all, the imperceptible manner of his descent and its sudden revelation to him. And in the hospital, with its rigid stratification, Buzzati has found a terrifying image of society itself - an impersonal organization that hustles the individual on his way to death, caring for him, providing services, but at the same time distant, rule-ridden, incomprehensible, and cruel.' 

Esslin, Martin. Parallels and Proselytes, The Theatre of the Absurd. London: Pelican, 1982. (3rd Ed.).pp.277-279.

The Bewitched Bourgeois

^Rest assured, there were and are excellent centers of care too.

Update: 11th January 2025: c/o John Self. Meet the forgotten maestro of the ultra-short story. Saturday Review, The Times, p.15.

'One of his most widely published stories, Seven Floors, is set in a hospital where they put the "mildest cases" on the seventh floor, and so on in increasing order of sickness down to the first floor, which is occupied by those who are "beyond hope"'.

Lawrence Venuti. (2025) The Bewitched Bourgeois, New York: NYRB Classics ISBN: 9781681378671.

Cover image: NYRB.