bloodlines

bloodlines is a 'mutated' lecture that tracks the diagnostic and biomedical story of a young man diagnosed with a deadly form of blood cancer. Through a mix of dance and projected image, it conveys the profound shifts in a patient's sense of embodiment as they undergo aggressive treatment including a stem cell transplant. The familiar body becomes a hostile environment, cancer turns its life-giving microscopic processes into deadly ones, the pain and fatigue of treatment change our relationship to the world, transplant involves us accommodating another's biology into our own and facing mortality alerts us to the fragility of our ‘mortal coil’. At the same time, our body is reflected back to us through medical discourse and images that are unsettling, unfamiliar but often also beguiling and beautiful.  Where is the self: in the cell or the soul?

While no longer available as a live performance, screenings, workshops and talks related to bloodlines are available for a wide range of learning and public engagement contexts including: preparing patients and relatives for treatment; supporting drives for bone marrow registries; engaging the public in the science of cancer diagnosis and treatment; educating healthcare students in psychosocial experience of patients and educating performance students in interdisclinary devising. Screenings are framed for these audiences through talks and discussions with the artists and guest speakers.  See 'production history' below for examples and here for information on its use in medical and biomedical education. 

The project was inspired by its makers’ personal experience of  Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (which the composer, Milton Mermikides developed in 2004) and its treatment through intensive chemotherapy, radiotherapy and a bone marrow transplant for which I was the donor. The creative team also included a clinical haematologist, former doctor, science communication expert and a dancer. The process included visits to laboratories and wards at Antwerp University Hospital and Hammersmith Hospital. The devising process explored the different ways in which the body is experienced, understood and represented in medical domains, in the arts and for a range of audiences.

bloodlines has featured in the TImes Higher Education and on This Week (BBC Radio 4) and is analysed in Performing Specimens (Bouchard, 2020). The production was supported by Arts and Humanities Research Council, under the 'Science in Culture' theme and by Kingston University.

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production credits

direction: Alex Mermikides

performance and choreography ('the patient'): Adam Kirkham

performance and medical consultancy ('the doctor'): Ann van de Velde, Bex Law

performance ('the donor'): Adam Kirkham, Viviana Rocha, Caroline Lofthouse

sound and patient consultancy: Milton Mermikides

projections: Anna Tanczos

light: Andrew Nasrat

production history (selected)

Imperial College London (screening for medical students): 22 March 2016

Guys & St Thomas Hospital (workshop for medical students): 14 March 2016

Manchester Science Festival (public performance): 27 October 2015

Ivy Centre, Surrey (public performance): 30 June 2015

Rose Theatre Kingston (public performance/drama students): 23 June 2015

University of Kent (screening and workshops for drama students): February 2015

Belgium Haematological Society (performance/workshop for oncology nurses): 15 January 2015

St George's Hospital (extract/lecture for patients): 17 October 2014

Lincoln Arts Centre (performance in Performing Science conference): 25 April 2014

Young Vic Theatre (workshop for theatre directors): 11 March 2014

University Hospital Antwerp (performance for transplant patients): 7  March 2014

Central School of Music & Drama (performance for researchers): 7 January 2014

Science Museum London (public performance): 18 July 2013