Background

‘Medical magical realism’- Inside Out of Mind bridges the divides between the arts and sciences, the left and right hemispheres of the brain.
The project seeks to make visible those deemed invisible, give voice to the silent and aspires to touch the hearts and minds of wider audiences.

Inside Out of Mind is a play that reflects and is inspired by the 600,000 word ethnographic research project – ‘Challenging Care: The role and experience of Health Care Assistants in NHS Dementia Wards’ prepared by Justine Schneider, Kezia Scales, Simon Bailey and Joanne Lloyd. The project would not have been possible without an organizational interest in improving the experience of staff, nor without individual wards prepared to expose themselves to close and prolonged scrutiny.

‘We each of us have a life story – whose continuity, whose sense – is our lives’
– Oliver Sacks

Introduction to Inside Out of Mind

“Welcome to the Ward with No Name.
We’d like to forget but we can’t, can we!”
– HCA, Acute Dementia Ward Nurse

Based on extraordinary and extensive ethnographic research, Inside Out of Mind offers moving insight into the mysterious domain of dementia; a world of medical magical realism peopled with puppets and performers in pursuit of a lost man in pursuit of lost love. A darkly comic and empathic tale. We cross inside out and outside in, the bridges between worlds where “time and it’s contents are drifting apart” – Nabakov.

“This House is my heart dear. There are so many rooms, it must take forever to keep them warm”
– Gertie with Alzheimer’s

Inside Out of Mind: Snapshots From The Stalls