Milton (our sound designer) comes to today’s rehearsal in the afternoon. We ask him to take his place in the bed and perform for him some snippets we’ve been developing in the morning. We’ve continued to play with the idea of the ‘composite’ nurse – two bodies representing one person. Dominique & Phil approach his bed side, peering around his hospital chart. Archana and Thalia slide through assorted roles and tasks, ending up trapped by a blood pressure cuff. As a former patient himself, Milton is quite affected by his confrontation with what he calls these ‘hyperbolic nurses… ‘four legs, four arms, two faces’. They capture something of the multiple roles that nurse’s play, and the almost mythical quality they can acquire in a dependent patient’s imagination.

As we continue exploring the creative possibilities of today’s pairings, Milton quietly moves around the space with his laptop, turning on taps, swishing curtains, fiddling with scissors. When we gather to cool down and debrief he plays us a little composition, made up entirely of found sounds from the ward we’ve been working in. Comical and eerie at the same time.

Thank you Dominique Vannod, Phil Hambly, Archana Ballal, Thalia-Marie Papadopoulos, Adam Kirkham and Milton Mermikides for your hard work today.