The Company

Bay Street Productions and HealthPlay

In 1997, Bay Street Productions was one of the first to bring the worlds of art and health together, under the banner, HealthPlay. Subsequently, it has staged over 400 performances around Australia, using a total of 28 professional actors, in 11 different plays.

Perhaps an illustration of how this demand for HealthPlay increased is, that in October 2012, three different plays were staged in three different States in five days, followed by a 20 city Victorian tour with “The Empty Chair”, a play about dementia. Earlier in the year, “Six Degrees of Diabetes” toured Victorian community centres and workplaces before a tour of mining centres in South Australia with the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

A HealthPlay production presents the audience with three steps towards understanding and ongoing communication: one, the play to entertain and educate; two, the forum in which questions arising from the play are answered and three, a chance to forge ongoing links with professionals and support groups, that will continue long after the play has gone.

Hoppy’s Heroes

The story of the South Australian tour of HealthPlay’s For Better, For Worse.

The play (Four Funerals in One Day) and the forum allowed people to engage in conversation on dying and palliative care. We were able to attract over 900 people in total to attending six play performances. Participant evaluations stated that people were more prepared to talk about death and dying.
Barbara Young, Palliative Care Consulting Team, Ovens and King Community Health. October 2009