About our work
Vamos Theatre has created work with and for the health and care sectors since 2013, when we made Finding Joy, our award-winning international touring production about dementia. On this foundation, we were awarded a two-year Strategic Touring Project by Arts Council England, in which we explored the engagement of people living with dementia with theatre, worked to remove barriers to attendance and participation, and helped to change attitudes to and understanding of people who live with dementia. Since then, over 80,000 people have experienced our health and care performances and CPD workshops.
Specialists in non-verbal communication, Vamos Theatre creates performances that give everyone involved, regardless of their sensory differences, the opportunity to play, interact and immerse themselves, and explore their capacity for happiness and laughter. We support new models of community-based, person-centered care by providing CPD training within an ethos of empathy, listening, acceptance, and playfulness. We believe that training is most successful, and skills are sustained, when learning is experiential, emotional and enjoyable.
Current research shows the many positive effects that involvement in the arts has on those receiving care; including improved cognitive processes, attention, stimulation of memories and enhanced communication. This, in turn, has positive effects on families and carers, and the quality of the care environment. We offer a range of interactive, inclusive performances for health and care settings, CPD training for staff and keynote speeches for conferences.
Stephanie Tyrell, Head of Arts for the national disability charity, Sense, describes her impressions from a recent partnership with us:
"Our partnership with Vamos Theatre is an inspiring experience. Their unique approach to full mask theatre creates powerful, non-verbal storytelling that resonates deeply with our audiences. Their creativity and commitment to producing impactful, engaging storytelling make every collaboration enriching, fostering a strong sense of connection and narrative. Vamos’s wordless storytelling creates an inclusive space where everyone can connect. Their performances spark emotions and conversations that might not have happened otherwise. It is truly eye-opening."
Vamos Theatre is proud to be a member of the Dementia Action Alliance and to have been a finalist in the National Dementia Care Awards 2024.
Explore more...
Listening with your Eyes
Listening with your Eyes is a vibrant workshop that develops skills of empathy, insight, listening and trust-building, particularly in the arena of health and care. Led in a supportive and playful way, its aim is for everyone to learn through their own discovery and so to empathise with others more easily.
Mischief!
Mischief! has been created especially for people with sensory issues, learning disabilities and/or autism, and those living with dementia. It's a 60-minute interactive performance, workshop and celebration featuring comic out-and-about characters, interactive sensory play, and a special mask theatre workshop.
Sharing Joy
Sharing Joy is a vibrant and colourful interactive performance created for people living with dementia, learning disabilities and other neurological conditions. Through music, dance, puppetry and laughter, the show brings pleasure and meaning to everyone watching, keeping audiences engaged, involved and exhilarated.
Keynote Speeches
Vamos Theatre’s Artistic Director, Rachael Savage, is one of the UK’s leading experts in non-verbal communication. Her Keynote Speeches give an insight into the positive impact of the arts on people receiving care, as well as the wider impact arts-led practice has in building empathetic, caring communities.
Walkabout
Walkabout is an interactive style of performance which brings our full mask characters off the stage and into life. Used as both an entertainment and learning element of Health and Care events, our funny and engaging characters create an impact and a talking point.
Out for Tea
Out for Tea is a short theatre performance designed as a training tool for those working in health and care. An engaging, wordless performance showing empathy, insight, listening and trust building in action, it works as a stand-alone training tool or as a springboard for discussion at health and care events.