What is it like performing in HOSPITALS?

This conversation centers on the Arts for All program at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. Mark and Joni discuss the unique challenges and rewards of performing in hospitals.

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TRANSCRIPT

Mark

So we both work together, it's on the CW + - it's for Arts for All Program. And CW+ is the charity for Chelsea and Westminster hospital. They also do the all the arts, and they also cover West Middlesex University Hospital as well. But for our collaboration, we're in Chelsea, aren't we? On a Tuesday!

It's interesting, I think how approaching working in a hospital compared to work performing anywhere else is a very different environment. And I don't know, sometimes people ask what it's like from my point of view, and it's a funny one, because I always say it's like… if you said you're playing in a concert hall, somewhere grand or like a pub or something, there's a stage, there's an audience, and people have come to watch the stage - I mean, they've come to watch it. But when you go into a hospital, because it's completely it’s turned on its head, because there's no stage. You're just walking into a very different environment. It can be quite full on. There's a lot going on. People can be very seriously ill. There can be some, really lots of things going on in there. And you're there to try and make it a bit nicer for everyone. But it's very much, you're there to help that environment. The doctors don't stop working! People don't just stop and come and and watch, you know what I mean!

Joni

And I think that's that's a really, sort of, important thing to sort of realize when you're performing in hospitals, is what your role is. I think, you know that you can't stop the pain. You know you can't diagnose, you know you can't treat a patient, but what you can do is just make things a little bit nicer. And I think that’s, sort of, one of the ways that you, sort of, have to approach being in a hospital, because otherwise it can be, like you said, it can be really full on it can be really intense, and you are seeing people, you know, sometimes at their worst moments. And especially, I think, in paediatrics, you're seeing the parents as well. Or the, you know, what, you know, the family, the visitors of the patient, as well. And they, they benefit from it as well, I think, but they are often going through some hard times, and you sort of have to go in there and know what you can do, what you're able to do, and you know most people are so appreciative of it,

Mark

Yeah, totally

Joni

Otherwise, you can just get really caught up in in the situation.

Mark

It’s interesting, I think, sometimes in paediatrics - I suppose, across a lot of hospital patients, you kind of catch people who are either completely in shock, because something has just, kind of, blasted through their life and suddenly they’re in hospital. Or there’s people who have been in and out of hospital all their lives. So they're just it's quite normal for them. So they're just a bit bored. And it can literally be - that can happen in the same bay. You can be playing - you can be performing to two beds at the same time, and those two experiences are going on from them. And it's true, it's just knowing your role, and owning that role, really, knowing that you just made help a little bit. Knowing when to step back, knowing when it's not appropriate, because that's very important. You know, if you, if, like, I say, if people come to pay tickets to a theatre, you play whenever the person wants to leave or not. But in a hospital, you don't, you sort of, you play for as long as it's right. You stop if you feel it's not right. And if someone has to come and administer some medicine things that's more probably more important than getting to the end of the tune!

Joni

We're not the most important people in the room, are we? So it's good for, it's good for the ego in a way.

Mark

I think it's also good like from a staff point of view as well. There's been loads of times where,- and if you think of, you know, especially people on the front line in wards, long shifts, it's full on. And just something nice that comes in, even for eight minutes, if you're only there for, you know, in that little environment with them, and just helps chill them out a little bit. It can go a long way, I think.

Joni

And I think what's nice with Chelsea and Westminster, because the, because of the Arts Program - and it's a big arts program! We’re not the only artists on it. There are other musicians, there's dancers, there's more sort of participatory stuff as well - Is that actually a lot of the time the staff know it's there, and sort of not, not, I guess, expect, is maybe the wrong word for it, but they they know that that is part of the hospital. And there's art all over the hospital as well. So there's, there is that really nice focus on it. And I think what's really nice is sometimes the staff, even sort of…they know that there's a benefit to what we do, and they'll say, “oh, so-and-so would love it!” Or “So-and-so could really need it.” Or, you know, even the other day, we had a staff member say, “This patient is having a cannula, they've been very distressed. Maybe afterwards you can go visit and, sort of, help calm it down.” So that's been, you know, the staff have been so vital in this as well. So being able to develop those relationships with staff - because we have this long residency, you've had so much time to develop our collaboration, but how we are in the hospital as well has been really, really good actually. Really really vital.

Mark

It makes a huge difference. I remember early on playing in hospitals, sometimes you get an impression from the staff where you're sort of just in their way. And I guess we have a lot of when, you know, it's a new program and people are a bit more “what you're doing this here, what's going on?” If people were like, “Oh, that's really nice, yes!” then it's so much easier. Whereas you've got to sort of try and convince the staff, but you're not going to do anything terrible, and it's actually good, then it's much easier.

Joni

One of the things I wanted to mention as well is, because you were talking about knowing how long to play for, and sort of judging that, and that made me think about how important is that the patient has a choice in it. If they said, “No!” that's absolutely fine, we're not going to take that personally. If they want to stop halfway through, if they're in too much pain, or they're frustrated or grumpy or tired, like, absolutely fine.

Especially, I think, with paediatric patients, because they don't get a lot of choice with what happens to them, and a lot of what does happen is for the good of the patient's health, but can be very painful, like, you know, having blood taken, you know, it's painful, or it's confusing, or they've got to take a medicine that tastes really awful, or they got to sit for long periods of time. And being able to, one be something completely different.

And for us to come in and go, “You can say no to this,” I think is really important. Most of the time they say “yes!” but it's so important that they have that choice of going, “No, I don't want this.”

So it's such a different, such a different way of doing things, and I think especially because we do a lot of bedside visits, I know, from my perspective, you know, when I've performed to, you know, a bigger audience, when it has been a theatre, you're kind of, you're playing to a crowd, and you can't really see them. And sometimes you sort of pick up on individual members of the audience, but usually you're just, sort of, trying to say it to all of them at once, but also trying to make them feel like it's very important that you're you're speaking just to them. But in the hospital you are, you're performing to one audience member. And because you're in an environment where they are unwell, you know, there's a reason that they're there, you're also just so in tuned to what their needs are, like, what is best for them, like, or what they're enjoying out of out of performance, or what they're not enjoying. Which is at the start, is a little bit intimidating, because you're just, I just want the best performance that I can do for that child, for that patient. But now I really, actually love it. I love, you know, every single performance is different. And I know that's the you know, that's the same for anything live but I think in particular, because you are responding to that patient, and they might not even realize that's what you're doing, but you kind of know, like, oh, they really liked the bird swooping. So we're going to do a lot of swooping until they're fed up with it, but if they're enjoying that, I'm going to sort of indulge them a little bit.

Or, you know what you're sort of saying with that, how we can work with staff is if they are - We had someone where the consultant was just listening with a stethoscope to the patient's back, and I noticed they're really loving the rocket. So you better believe I did it much longer than we usually do, because, like, they're distracted, they're enjoying this. And sort of that sort of fits in with how we started as as a collaboration. So much of it was improvised, so much of it was us listening to each other that I know if I do this for a little bit longer, Mark's not going to be sitting there going, “what is Joni doing?” Maybe you do!

Mark

Mostly not! We inform each other, because it's more like a conversation. If you go and just play to a crowd, you're performing to them. But when it's in, when it's one on one, it is conversational, and it's being able to adapt, and that's it is just, that's the nature of what we do. I guess it's being able to improvise to the point of stopping, or to the point of just adapting what we do slightly. Helping with a distraction a little bit more because something's going on, and just generally, having that extra awareness of everything else around and seeing how it can fit in most effectively.

Joni

Oh, and there's even just like fitting into spaces,

Mark

Physically fitting in-

Joni

Physically fitting in! Because there's different - there's bays, there's cubicles, there's waiting rooms, there's play rooms. I mean, we've gotten quite used to the different spaces because we've just spent a lot of time in the hospital. But even then, the way the patients sort of inhabit that space is always different. You know, especially with the cubicles, and especially if they've got particularly equipment that they need, you know, we do sort of open the door and we go, “right, how are we going to fit this in?” And it's interesting, I think that we've had this time to rehearse, and we had, like, a couple of months of just, you know, not every day, but we had a long time of devising and rehearsal, and then went into a room, and it was sort of like, well, I've got to stand here, and you've got to be behind me, and you can't see. But I trust - I think there's a lot of trust that we've built up of, you know, we'll even if it's not exact, even if it's not fully rehearsed, it's kind of, it's still gonna be really good.

Mark

Because I guess with the collaboration is all the music and the puppetry, it's not the music's not written on a score. We're not timed. We're not like we know we have six seconds to lead to this. It is very much, you both know vaguely what's gonna happen at the beginning, at the end, but how we get there, it can be, can take different tangents, and the song can change a little bit. Things can take longer and shorter. And that's fine, you know.

Joni

And I think, yeah, that's just, that's maybe, like the best thing of between, you know, between us is that a real willingness to adapt and to not go in and go, This is how it's meant to be, but really being open to, like I said, every single performance being different, and that's the joy of it. You know, it's that's not a bad thing, that is so part of it. And I think that's why it works, in works in hospitals, because every day is different.

Mark

Because you can see the same patient every week and have a different experience every week -

Joni

Absolutely yes!

Mark

Purely depending on what’s happened that night, what they have done that morning. It is very changeable. And being being able to change with it makes a difference, and it makes an individual experience, because when it is actually what they want, it's not just turning up doing the same thing - “Did you like that? Yes? No? Iit doesn't matter.” It does it changes for them. Because sometimes it stopped midway, just because they come to have a lot what's going on behind. And there more interested in how’s that light happened? And that becomes the focus. And likewise, sometimes children have reached over to play my harp a bit. So I just, what the music I had written in my head doesn't matter anymore, they’re having a go and it's, it's that sort of thing. So the nature of performance can completely change based on how they react, you know?

Joni

And it's, it's funny, because I think sometimes the way that people will ask me, “oh, how is it working in the hospital?” I think they expect it to be really hard or really, or really intense or or difficult. And it's, it's not. Like, there are some times where we've done things that are really tricky. There's times where we've performed for patients who are, you know, receiving palliative care and are essentially dying, and that is tough. But a lot of the time it's so joyful. You're going in and you're giving a positive experience to the patient, but also their grown ups, you know, and sometimes the staff and, you know, yeah, you can be a really positive force. And I think as long as you - I always just sort of meet the child as they are, like, I'm not, you know, it's, it's, it's like. I’m sort of meeting them with empathy, and I'm listening to them and are responding to them. And it's, it's about them. It's not necessarily about, you know, the sadness or anything. The thought, for me, is about, “right, how can I make this better?”

Mark

I think that's the focus as well. Because, I mean, there's been a few meetings we've had, like with other artists and stuff, within CW+ and also, because I've worked across a few programs. And obviously people say it's you walk into upsetting situations, but I've always just thought, well, actually, yes, it's upsetting, but people are ill, and things do happen, and you've got an opportunity to go and do something quite nice. And actually, that's sort of the focus. It's not and that is the sort of most important thing, I guess.

Joni

We're meeting the patient as the person that they are. And that's, that's the focus of it. And, yeah, we sort of, we are the sort of, the non clinical, non - I don't know, I don't know how else to explain it -  but I think it's that sort of taking that patient away from that situation for just a little bit. Because, yeah, I think it's that building of these little positive moments, that's what we can offer and contribute to that patient's healing.

Mark

I remember a doctor, this is West Mid years ago, just said as I came out of the ward, “oh, it's bringing the outside world in,” Bringing that bit of life outside, into an environment where that kind of gets put on hold, I guess.