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47 results
  • Article
  • Article

Sick of the theatre

| Michael Regnier

What makes the stage a good place to share real-life experiences of ill health?

  • Article
  • Article

Acting, disableism and inclusive theatre

| Jamie HaleKirsten IrvingPatrick Baldwin

Deaf theatre director Jenny Sealey discusses inclusivity, community and the resilience of disabled actors.

  • In pictures
  • In pictures

The original drama of operating theatres

| Lizzie Enfield

Medicine as ‘theatre’ began in the 16th century, when paying audiences enjoyed candlelight, live music – and a cadaver being dissected in front of them, all the in name of education.

  • In pictures
  • In pictures

How chloroform shaped the murder mystery

| David Jesudason

Find out how a sweet-smelling liquid anaesthetic captured the public’s imagination and changed pop culture for ever.

  • Article
  • Article

The politics and power of audio-description

| Jamie HaleKirsten IrvingChristopher Andreou

Traditional theatre audio-description often lets down artists and audiences. But, done well, it has the potential to be a force for creativity as well as accessibility.

  • Article
  • Article

The joys and failures of audio description

| Alex LeeIan Treherne

Audio description enhances the experience of watching a film or TV show for people with a visual impairment, but it's not widely available in the UK. Alex Lee explains why.

  • Article
  • Article

In celebration of LGBTQ+ comedy

| Ella BraidwoodThomas S G Farnetti

At school, homophobic jokes made Ella Braidwood feel uncomfortable and ashamed. Fast-forward to today’s inclusive comedy scene, and her very different feelings of hope and happiness.

  • Article
  • Article

The freedom to provoke

| Jamie HaleStephen Allwright

Jamie Hale talks to performer and director Emma Selwyn about the joy of creating work that celebrates, rather than suppresses, autistic behaviours.

  • Article
  • Article

Western magic’s fascination with the foreigner

| Shelley Angelie SaggarThomas S G Farnetti

Could modern magic shows be perpetuating damaging cultural stereotypes? Shelley Saggar shows how ‘exotic’ costumes and imagery are far from harmless fun.

  • Article
  • Article

The problem of the punctured heart

| Thomas MorrisEmily Evans

During World War II a young American surgeon working in England perfected shrapnel-removal techniques that saved dozens of lives. Discover how one case sealed his reputation as the founder of cardiac surgery.

  • Article
  • Article

The mystery of the malignant brain

| Thomas MorrisEmily Evans

In 1884 a neurologist successfully used a patient’s symptoms, plus a new kind of map, to locate a brain tumour. Discover how his best-laid plans for treatment worked out.

  • Article
  • Article

Paris Morgue and a public spectacle of death

| Taryn Cain

Known as the “only free theatre in Paris”, La Morgue was a popular place for the public to view cadavers on display.

  • Article
  • Article

Our Covid complicity

| Athena StevensCarrie Ravenscroft

Athena Stevens thought she had a cold that she tried to ignore, but it turned out to be Covid-19. Here she reflects on how we have all put ourselves and others at risk with the choices we’ve made during this pandemic.

  • Book extract
  • Book extract

Healing hearts and saving lives

| Joanna CannonBenjamin Gilbert

Cardiology is a prestigious specialism, known for its life-saving, heroic staff. But a doctor’s training eventually reveals other, less obvious ways to save lives.

  • Article
  • Article

Rejecting shame and a decade of change

| Jess Thom

Jess Thom spent years trying to ignore and suppress the tics of Tourette’s syndrome. Read what happened when she decided to celebrate them instead.

  • Article
  • Article

The making of ‘Quacks’

| Helen Babbs

How do you create a medical comedy that’s authentic and laugh-out-loud funny?

  • Article
  • Article

How electromagnetic therapy inspired me

| Sarah James

Poet Sarah James explores how repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation treated her depression and influenced her art.

  • Article
  • Article

Dazzling luxury

| Ruth Garde

As the 20th century dawned, both elite and masses basked in the marvellous and unearthly glow of the new electric illumination.

  • Article
  • Article

Wonder years

| Chris North

The confusion and secrecy surrounding his condition seriously affected Chris’s mental health, blighting his teenage years. But somehow he began to hope and plan for the future.

  • Interview
  • Interview

Inside the mind of Living with Buildings curator, Emily Sargent

| Gwendolyn Smith

Curator Emily Sargent reveals why council estates and a Finnish TB sanatorium were chosen for the ‘Living with Buildings’ exhibition.

  • Article
  • Article

The painter, the psychiatrist and a fashion for hysteria

| Natasha Ruiz-GómezKathleen Arundell

A dramatic painting brings a famous event in medical history alive. But it also tells a tale about the health preoccupations of the time.

  • Interview
  • Interview

Meet the climate emergency

| Gwendolyn SmithThomas S G Farnetti

Find out what led Yinka Shonibare to create the compelling artwork ‘Refugee Astronaut’.

  • Interview
  • Interview

Inside the minds of A R Hopwood and Honor Beddard

| Gwendolyn SmithThomas S G Farnetti

The curators of ‘Smoke and Mirrors’ reveal the stories behind the exhibits, and the intriguing truths the show confronts us with.

  • Article
  • Article

How the magician’s assistant creates the illusion

| Naomi Paxton

Without breaking the spell, performer Naomi Paxton reveals the subtle ways the magician’s assistant helps the audience to keep believing.

  • Article
  • Article

Desperate housewives and suburban neurosis

| Giulia Smith

Discover how a pioneering health centre replaced housewives’ supposedly empty home lives with a social space that encouraged healthy child rearing.