IMH’s fourth annual Research Cabaret was a resounding success.
On 6 November 2025, a sell-out audience joined us at the Radisson Blu Hotel for an evening of live music, poetry, dance and chaos exploring experiences of health and illness at the margins and from the marginalised.
Part of Being Human Festival, Between the Lines featured performances from IMH researchers alongside local artists. Highlights included Ruben Verwaal’s comic exploration of the history of bodily fluids, Emily Davis’s demonstration of dance-in-health research practice, Arya Ray’s supernatural murder-mystery, Daniel P. Jones’s immersive exploration of what it is like to live with Tourette Syndrome, and the strange stories of research into sleep deprivation and hallucination written and performed by Georgia Punton.
IMH Professor in Practice and Director of the National Centre for Poetry, Nick Barley, gave a compelling response to question ‘What’s the point of poetry?’
The cabaret also saw the first performance of a new commission with New Writing North. Christy Ducker’s poem ‘Module 8’ was an intensely moving exploration of moral injury and the possibility of repair, inspired by Andrea Lambell’s doctoral research and her own experiences as a carer during and after the Covid-19 pandemic.
Congratulations to Louise Creechan and Mary Robson for co-ordinating the stellar line-up of performances and spearheading the delivery of the Cabaret.
Thank you also to all our performers for showcasing the creativity and vitality of our work at the Institute for Medical Humanities.
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