The script for Critical Care was developed through a collaborative, research-led process grounded in real experiences. It began with eight semi-structured interviews with women who worked as ICU nurses during the pandemic, exploring both their lived experiences and their hopes for how those stories might be represented on stage.

These insights informed a series of three creative writing workshops where nurses shared sensory and imaginative responses to their environments. These workshops helped shape the play’s key themes, character development, setting, and language — all within a supportive, compassionate space that also allowed the nurses to reflect and connect with one another.

The script was further refined through an intensive two-week in-person development phase, supported by Arts Council England. During this period, nurses, actors, a composer, and a director worked together to shape the narrative. The work-in-progress was then shared in an online reading for over 30 ICU specialists hosted by the British Association of Critical Care Nurses (BACCN), followed by live excerpts presented to 60+ attendees at the BACCN conference, and a rehearsed public reading at Nonsuch Studios in Nottingham for an audience of 90.

Public Rehearsed Reding: Tuesday 12th September 2023 at 7pm at Nonsuch Studios in Nottingham

Production Team:

Writer: Stacey Moon-Tracy

Director: Orla O’Connor

Sound Designer: Derek Nisbet

Technician/Production Manager: Skye Niedermaier-Reed

Actors:

Frankie           Abigail Pidgeon

Morgan          Mary Bonam

Alex                 Taj Kandula

Sam                Tanya Myers

Audience feedback, both spoken and observed, directly informed the final draft, ensuring the play remained authentic, impactful, and emotionally resonant.

The development process was supported by:

Arts Council England

British Association of Critical Care Nurses

Coventry University

Intensive Care Society

Mansfield District Council- Cultural Services

Mansfield Palace Theatre

New Perspectives Theatre Company

Nonsuch Studios

To learn more about Critical Care and the research process you can explore the following:

Listen to Series 1, Episode 2 of The Wilderness of Creativity Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ytt5eTZndt4

View a short documentary created during the R&D: Critical Care Mini Doc on Vimeo

Please contact Stacey to read her thesis: Voices of Care: a compassionate approach to playwriting as arts based research to explore, interpret and disseminate narratives of women who were Nurses working in Intensive Care Units during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Photographs: Critical Care - Stacey Moon-Tracey Photos (shootproof.com)