Four Minifigures are positioned in front of a blue-gradient background. They are nurses in scrubs. The figures on the far left and right are looking caringly over patients in their beds. The two central figures stand alone. Image © Emma Howlett & Eleanor Birdsall Smith

Housemates 2024: Tending

8 October-12 October

Tending offers a heartbreaking, hilarious and very human look at the experience of the nurses on the frontline of our health service.

Brixton House present

Description

★★★★ ‘One of the most timely plays of the Fringe’ – The Scotsman

★★★★★ ‘Truly extraordinary’ – Scottish Field

★★★★★ ‘Compassionate… beautiful, and master-crafted’ – British Theatre Guide

There are 400,000 nurses in the NHS today. This is their story.

Tending offers a heartbreaking, hilarious and very human look at the experience of the nurses on the frontline of our health service.

Based on over 70 interviews with nurses of all ages, backgrounds and nationalities, Tending immerses you in their day-to-day lives. It asks an essential question: when the system’s under pressure and lives are on the line, who takes time to care for the carers?

See two Housemates Festival shows for £25 or book three shows for £30. Simply book all shows in the same transaction and the discount will be automatically applied when checking out online.

Content information

Performances will include sudden, loud sounds.

Latecomers policy: Latecomers may enter in the first 10 minutes. After this point, there is no entry into the performance.

Photography © Lucy Hayes

Housemates: El Blackwood and John Livesey

El Blackwood and John Livesey smiling together in the Brixton House foyer

El Blackwood, Writer
El (she/her) is an actor, writer and director. El trained as a playwright on the prestigious John Burgess Playwriting Course (2021-2022) and as an actor with Identity School ofActing (2021-2023) and the Orange Tree Theatre Young Company (2022-2023). El is also the co-founder of Offshoots Theatre, which platforms and connects emerging creatives while raising
money for the Trussell Trust. In 2023, she founded El Blackwood Productions and wrote the award-winning play, TENDING. TENDING achieved critical and commercial success at Edinburgh Fringe 2023, and has been invited back for a month-long run at Underbelly this year. 

John Livesey, Director:
John Livesey (he/him) is a writer, dramaturg and director. He has directed multiple shows including ‘random’; (Actor’s Centre, 2020), ‘Heather’; (Southwark Playhouse, 2021), and ‘Amphibian’; (King’s Head Theatre, Hannah Barry Gallery; 2022). John trained on the Stone Crabs Young Directors Programme and with OUDS, the Oxford University Drama Society. For his work on ‘random’, he was selected to take part in the National Student Drama Festival. John is a member of The North Wall Arts Lab programme and in 2023, was selected for the Independent Film Trust’s Talent Led programme and the Punchdrunk Young Talent Network. This year, he was selected by the European Theatre Convention to take part in an artist residency at the Deutsches Theater, Berlin. He is also currently working on a PhD with University College London, and is the recipient of an AHRC research scholarship.

Eleanor Birdsall-Smith, Producer:
Eleanor Birdsall-Smith (she/her) is a producer and freelancer. She has worked in Film and TV production, including on projects for Netflix, HBO and Sony, and is a former junior agent at Independent Talent. Eleanor produced the recent sold-out run of Cowboys and Lesbians at Park theatre as well as its Fringe run and first iteration as Scholar’s Creek in January 2022, which secured full Arts Council funding. She also produces for screen, including a number of acclaimed music videos for the band Pynch and the upcoming short film Fair Weather.

No performances currently available.