Date
Saturday 17th May 2025, 14:00
Event type
Theatre & Workshop
Theme
Experiences of personalised medicine
Location
Mary Ogilvie Lecture Theatre, St Anne's College

Making it Personal (January–September 2025) is an innovative public engagement with research project using creative methods. Led by Dr. Ali Kay (CPM & researcher on the iPREGCARE study in the Goriely Group, MRC WIMM) and Dr. Minna Jeffery (Rosemary Pountney Junior Research Fellow in British and European Theatre, St Anne’s College, Oxford), the project utilised theatre to spark conversation around a couple’s experience of a de novo (new) genetic diagnosis in their child and their question, Could it happen again?

Over several months, Ali and Minna co-developed a play script in collaboration with a panel of lived experience experts and healthcare practitioners. The resulting staged reading took place on 17 May 2025 at the MOLT Theatre, St Anne’s College, with professional actors Henry Charnock and Laura Hopwood portraying the roles of Sam and Jess. Theatre offered a unique platform to “set the scene” on an emotional and personal level, highlighting how individuals process risk and medical information—often in ways that differ significantly from clinical perspectives.

Following the performance, audience members were invited to write messages of advice to Sam and Jess. Their thoughtful and empathetic responses underscored the value of theatre in deepening public engagement with research. An interactive workshop followed, featuring improvisations that explored alternative script scenarios and sparked vibrant discussions about the social implications of genetic information.

Audience feedback reflected how powerful and different it felt to learn about research through live performance—many remarked on how emotionally resonant and thought-provoking the experience was.

A full review of the project—including insights from the co-production process, audience messages, and workshop outcomes—is currently being prepared for publication. The performance was filmed by Oxford Digital Media and will support future outreach efforts. You can watch it here.

The Making it Personal project was funded by the Public and Community Engagement with Research (PCER) Fund, University of Oxford (Dr. Ali Kay; Dr. Minna Jeffery; Prof. Anne Goriely; Assoc. Prof. Lisa Hinton), with additional support from the Centre for Personalised Medicine.

If you have specific questions not addressed here, please contact the project leads Dr. Ali Kay and Dr. Minna Jeffery: alison.kay@imm.ox.ac.uk and minna.jeffery@st-annes.ox.ac.uk