When a hole appears in the roof of a crumbling and understaffed A&E department, patients, porters and nurses do what they must to make it through the night.

Senior Charge Nurse Crea strives to deliver safe and effective care while porter Hamish angles after a date. Staff nurse Ani juggles her bursting caseload, knowing that no one has come to Mr. Hopper’s bedside for his final moments. Octogenarian Tersia is trapped in a disco-fuelled fever dream while a disgruntled Fred Turnbull prepares his strongly worded complaint. And student nurse Lina has No. Idea. What. Is. Going. On.

Personal principles clash with professional obligations as three generations of nurses and one ‘long in the tooth’ porter are pushed towards breaking point.

Written by practising critical care nurse Uma Nada-Rajah, directed by Traverse Artistic Director Gareth Nicholls, Black Hole Sign takes a razor-sharp scalpel to the absurdities, tragedies and hilarity within of one of our most beloved but besieged institutions.

An exploration of changing attitudes towards an institution once world renowned, the play asks what we want for the future of our National Health Service and, crucially, who will hold it together when it all falls down?

Written by Uma Nada-Rajah

Directed by Gareth Nicholls

Originally commissioned by the Traverse Theatre
A Tron Theatre Company and Traverse Theatre Company co-production in association with the National Theatre of Scotland

'I’m a nurse in my day job and have been a nurse for a long time. There is something so funny and tragic about day-to-day life in hospital, the way that routine and paperwork brush up against the grand processes of human existence: When you’re born you get a birth certificate. When you die you get a death certificate. I wanted to capture that sense of absurdity and put it into a play that will make people laugh or cry. And at a time when there are a lot of questions circulating about the future of the National Health Service, I hope Black Hole Sign will make audiences think about the significance of care in modern society.'

Uma Nada-Rajah | Author