Careful

Careful is a dance/theatre performance about nurses. The show puts its audience in the care of five over-stretched nurses, drawing attention to what nursing scholar, Mark Radcliffe, calls the 'emotional context' of nursing and the overlooked fact that 'nurses feel'.  Devised in collaboration with nursing educators and students in the nursing school at Kingston University, it supports learning and reflection about the need to balance person-centred care with self-care. For public audiences, it spotlights the emotional experience of a profession that is often undervalued. At its heart, it is a stealth feminist critque of how care tends to be 'hived off into a type of gender-specific, low-grade, women-only quarantine', as Jaqueline Rose puts it, and assumed to be a natural feminine virtue rather than an acquired skill.

Screenings, workshops and talks related to Careful are available for range of audience. Live performances (full show or of extracts) may be arranged. See here for more information.

Careful has featured in the Guardian, Royal College of Nursing magazine and Greek national press. An impact case study submitted to the Research Excellence Framework 2022 achieved a 4* rating (world-leading). The production was developed using public funding from Arts Council England and UKRI and with support from Kingston University and Guildhall School of Music & Drama.

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See here for information about related learning experiences and resources for student nurses.

production credits

performance: Archana Ballal, Philippa Hambly, Thalia-Marie Papadopoulos, Helena Rice, Dominique Vannod and Josh Hutchby

direction: Alex Mermikides

choreography: Adam Kirkham

dramaturgy: Bex Law

sound: Milton Mermikides

light: Andrew Nasrat

production history

Rose Theatre, Kingston (main house): 5 June 2018

Ivy Centre, University of Surrey: 4 March 2017

Rose Theatre, Kingston (studio): 9 November 2016

Darwin Ward, Kingston University: 29 September 2016