Event - Public Health and Private Pain: A Night of Medical History and Drama

Thursday 5 May at 7pm, Museum of the History of Science, Broad Street, Oxford

Enter the Museum for a unique evening of performance and drama. Drawing from a rich variety of medical plays and historical material, the event will illuminate, provoke, and dramatize developments which have shaped ideas of the body from the 18th century to the present day. Join academics from across the University of Oxford, professional actors from the Pegasus Theatre and staff of the Museum of the History of Science as they show how these developments have been mapped not just by medical writing but by theatre, which has a long history of engaging with science and medicine.

Scenes and readings will include:

• Shelagh Stephenson, An Experiment with an Air-pump (1998)
• George Bernard Shaw, The Doctor’s Dilemma (1906)
• Henrik Ibsen, Ghosts (1881)
• A selection from the WWI poetry collection at Oxford by Sassoon and Owen
• An historical anti-vaccination song
• Joe Penhall, Blue/Orange (2000)

To book your free ticket, please register on Eventbrite here.