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Black Hole Sign

Black Hole Sign takes a razor-sharp scalpel to the absurdities, tragedies and hilarity within of one of our most beloved but besieged institutions... the NHS.

Black Hole Sign

About Black Hole Sign

8th Oct 2025 to 18th Oct 2025
See event website for times
Traverse Theatre
10 Cambridge Street, Edinburgh West EH1 2ED
£20 / Concession: £16 / Students & U30s: £14 / Low Income Benefit Recipient: £5 / Duration Approx. 1 hour
Visit the event website here

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 sage 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 NHS critical care nurse Uma Nada-Rajah and directed by Traverse Artistic Director Gareth Nicholls, Black Hole Sign takes a razor-sharp scalpel to the absurdities, tragedies and hilarity within 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?

Age 14+

Black Hole Sign is part of the Traverse's £1 Tickets Project.

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