Research by Professor Justine Schneider of the Institute’s Centre for Dementia has led to the development of a new opera, ‘Take Care’ which will showcase at the Lakeside Arts Theatre in April.

Award-winning soprano Donna Bateman will star in a new opera ‘Take Care’ at Lakeside on April 2 & 3, 2022.  Donna was born in Nottingham and has strong family ties here.  She will be joined by principal singers John Upperton, Violetta Gawara and Jane Streeton, in a full production of the work by composer Douglas Finch with words by Cindy Oswin.

Joining the cast will be a chorus of 12 local dementia carers, both professional and unpaid. University of Nottingham students will play in the orchestra, and Nottingham Trunt University theatre design students are working on costumes and set, with stage director Mervyn Millar and music director Jonathan Tilbrook. 

This translational project has received support from the Arts Council/National Lottery and the ESRC Impact Accelerator Fund. The opera is based on extensive research led by Professor Justine Schneider in 2016-18, with funding from the School for Social Care Research.

In that research, participant observers studied the lives of those who care for people with dementia at home; both as family members and as paid professionals. Through this opera we want to engage a non-traditional audience, carers themselves, with a heightened representation of day-to-day care for people with dementia.  The rich medium of opera has been chosen to elevate the status of dementia care and to shine a light on the emotional labour of carers.

For more information and tickets, visit the Lakeside website.