A blog post by Amy Enticknap, Co-Founder and Creative Producer, Human Story Theatre
The project began in early 2025, when Human Story Theatre were commissioned by Oxford Health Charity and Warneford 200 to develop and stage an initial run of three invitation-only performances of Janet Bolam’s Within These Walls inside the former chapel at the Warneford Hospital. Performed last autumn for healthcare professionals, stakeholders and invited guests connected to the Warneford 200 programme, the response to those performances was incredibly powerful. Following their success, we were invited to expand the production into a full public run: twelve performances in the chapel itself, followed by a transfer to the studio theatre at the Old Fire Station — a venue which has supported Human Story Theatre since our inception.
For the first time in HST’s history, we are creating a fully site-specific piece of theatre. There is something incredibly powerful about hearing these stories in the very space where generations of patients, staff and families once gathered. During rehearsals, there were moments where it genuinely felt as though the building was holding the stories with us.
Some of the words spoken by our actors are drawn directly from historical archives and lived experiences connected to the Warneford. To hear those words spoken aloud again, perhaps for the first time in decades, inside the same walls where they may once have echoed, has been very moving for all of us involved.
The chapel itself has shaped the production in ways we couldn’t have anticipated. Unlike a traditional theatre, audiences are not separated from the action by a stage. The intimacy of the space invites audiences directly into the world of the play. It allows the stories to feel immediate, human and personal — which sits at the heart of everything Human Story Theatre strives to do.
Our cast of four actors take on multiple roles across different periods in history, moving between patients, staff, family members and carers. Two actors from the original 2025 performances return to the production (Amantha Edmead & Ian Gain), joined by two new cast members bringing fresh energy and perspectives to the work (Oriana Buckland & Mason Chandler-Wickens). Together, they inhabit dozens of lives across two centuries of mental health care, revealing both the huge changes and the striking continuities in human experience.
At the same time, this site-specific staging has also brought unique creative challenges — particularly as the production later transfers into the studio theatre at the Old Fire Station. Part of our process has been asking how we preserve the intimacy, atmosphere and emotional connection of the chapel once the work moves into a more conventional theatre setting. Rather than trying to recreate the chapel, we’ve focused on carrying forward the essence of the storytelling: closeness, connection and shared experience.
That sense of shared experience extends beyond the performance itself. At HST, post-show discussions are an essential part of our work and our wider mission. These conversations create space to reflect, ask questions and continue exploring the themes raised by the play: the conversation after the performance is part of the storytelling itself.
That feels especially important for a production like Within These Walls. The play explores changing attitudes towards mental health care across 200 years, but it also asks very contemporary questions about compassion, dignity, stigma and human connection. We hope audiences leave not only having witnessed these stories, but feeling part of a wider conversation around them.
And perhaps that is what has made creating this production feel so special: the sense that past and present are sitting side by side in the room together.
