'The Whole World Gets Well!'

a new show produced by Scrap Mettle SOUL of Chicago

Scrap Mettle SOUL use story-telling and performance as a way of sharing the history of their community. 
Each performance will be followed by discussion led by Bliss Browne, founder and President of Imagine Chicago.
Music for the performance will be provided by members of the London band LETSwing! 

REVIEW of the first night performance top With a last minute substitute British Actor from the local Bubble Theatre, ( www.londonbubble.org.uk ), SMS displayed their technique for gaining community involvement to a full house at Christ Church East Dulwich on Sunday night. The root principle is that of having community members write, act and sing plot lines that come from their own lives. Director Richard Geer then coaches and guides public performances directly to the affected communities who can, and do, draw comparisons with their own experiences -'Hey - that's just what happened to me down at that clinic!' 
Funded both back home in Chicago and now here by Health Authorities having hard to reach groups of people, the show here presented tells of health officials and medical staff who protect themselves by sticking rigidly to rules and procedures and don't let human issues disrupt the system. Meanwhile one doctor at least not only responds to the 'eccentric' behaviour of a backwoods philosopher, Ray Hicks (a real person and patient), but reaches out to the down and out inhabitants of the park and city streets. Ray Hicks, a natural story collector and teller, helps a troubled child patient by telling her exactly the story from his personal stock (experience?) which shows her she is not alone in coping with physical abuse. He believes that nearly every ill can be cured or eased by this empathetic process. 
Unfortunately, his own cancer has been left untreated overlong, but his strength and musical exuberance, encouraged by the rebellious out-reaching doctor, help him and his supportive friends and family to bear the harrowing therapy.
The main reason that Imagine Southwark is staging these performance is to encourage community groups here in the UK, including the providers and consumers of health care, to use the same storygathering and performances to achieve outreach and understanding, and to communicate the strengths and weaknesses of the 'protagonists'.
The host community for this first performance, the merged congregations of two other former churches in a new home at Christ Church, East Dulwich, also told stories of their own: the enormous achievements of their volunteer builders/ re-furbishers, and their current desire to make the interior of the church visually more accessible to the public, by forming a picture window facing the pavement and bus queues, and giving more space for pastoral work and events. by Trevor Bennett    top


In the play The Whole World Gets Well, there are several scenes about Ray Hicks. Ray Hicks is a real person. The play WWGW is a lot about his life. When people see the play they will hear the name "Ray Hicks" and hopefully this will be clear to them.

Ray is a person, although he is most likely dead now. He had cancer and was admitted to the hospital, where he met a doctor. The play is a lot about his relationship with this doctor.

Dr. Joseph Sobol wrote about Ray Hicks. Joe told Richard/Jules the story of Ray Hicks. It's a copyright thing I believe that he asks to be credited on any program we do.

We feel that if people realize who Ray Hicks was -- then the story takes on more significance. 

All of the stories in the play are true -- but this one is a big spine story in the entire play.

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Ray Hicks
Celebrated storyteller Ray Hicks lives atop a mountain in Watauga County in a manner more common to the pioneer than the modern mountaineer. One is struck first by Mr. Hicks' physical appearance - his lanky frame approaching seven feet. But the true marvel of the man is his verbal presence. He speaks a dialect of English that retains much of the vocabulary, phrasing, expression, and accent of earlier English and Scotch-Irish immigrants to the region. So much so that he was featured on Robert McNeil's PBS series "The Story of English." He is particularly fond of telling Jack tales. In Ray's interpretations, which may take the better part of an hour to complete, there is a wonderful weave of fairy tale elements with realistic trappings of Southern Appalachian culture.

Mr. Hicks regularly performs at the annual National Storytelling Festival in Jonesboro, Tennessee. He remains at the forefront of a national revitalization of a venerable art form. He received the National Heritage Fellowship Award from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1983 and a North Carolina Folk Heritage Award in 1992.

Joseph Sobol
The Ray Hicks story is our adaptation of a story by Joseph Sobol from his friendship
with the great Appalachian story teller, Ray Hicks. The scene is based on the story
told by Joseph to Scrap Mettle SOUL and his later written version titled, "Ray Hicks and the Doctors."

Grateful Thanks to all of the many people who helped to make this tour possible.
Special Thanks to: Driehaus Foundation, Illinois Arts Council, a state agency and
Uptown National Bank

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Copyright  Imagine Southwark/ Imagine Peckham 2003

updated 14 January 2003