USW students bring a boost of comedy to a dementia ward

MA Drama students at the University of South Wales (USW) collaborated with Cardiff & Vale Health Charity’s Arts for Health and Wellbeing Programme to deliver a performance to patients living with dementia and the staff looking after them at University Hospital Llandough.

The project took place in the context of the Reflective Practice 2: Themes, Contexts and Applications module led by Dr Márta Minier. This is an outward-facing module with an interest in applied drama, which takes drama out of the theatre building and into the community.

The performance was in response to a live brief which involved creating a short performance for the dementia patients at Llandough Hospital in dialogue both with hospital staff (a specialist dementia nurse and a member of the education team) and the Arts team at the Cardiff & Vale Health Charity.

The work was further enabled by a Partnership and Engagement Programme (PEP) award from USW, which itself had the wider focus of mapping current and potential relationships between USW and the Health Charity.

The performance, entitled Radio Mayhem, was produced, stage managed, and performed solely by students on the MA Drama course as part of the module.

Márta said: ‘This scenario has simulated the experience of making a show in response to a commission from an industry, third sector or business partner - something that is likely to be part of the work of a self-employed artist or a community artist after graduation.’

This was the first ever theatre performance on that particular ward, as, due to the adjustments needed to accommodate the patients, it can be difficult for touring theatre companies to perform in such a context.

The MA Drama students described the show as: “a fast-paced series of slapstick sketches performed by a chorus of clowns celebrating the journey and accomplishments of the NHS in honour of its 75th anniversary”, bringing a boost of comedy to the ward for patients and staff.

Lawrence Fletcher, a Speech and Language Therapist working within the Dementia Learning and Development Team for Cardiff & Vale Health Board, ran a dementia friendly training session for the cohort in preparation for their performance. He also advised on the performance during rehearsal to ensure it was suitable for the target audience.

Lawrence said: ‘What the performance allowed was for the patients to have rest and respite from the ward environment, to participate in a meaningful activity and to engage in a task that is often taken for granted by the wider population.’

‘The human need for fun, comedy and laughter doesn’t go away once a person has a diagnosis of dementia and the hospital environment is not always fun. Building opportunities for laughter into a person’s day can have a measurable positive impact on their overall wellbeing.’