New Vic Education’s Dementia and Creativity group present Time Goes By

27th June 2025

This week, our Dementia and Creativity group performed a new play, Time Goes By, for their friends and families, following 11 weeks of creating and rehearsing the story as a group.

During the last few months, the group have been building a play that explores the lives of characters during and post-World War II, inspired by their lived experiences. Beginning in 1939, and set during a train journey as a ‘Vessel of Change’, audiences were introduced to characters travelling throughout different periods of time – from passengers hoping to escape post-war Britain, to those based on recollections of being a child, and those experiencing the shift in present-day human-to-human communication through the lens of technology. With the support of the New Vic Education team, who took on the roles of train conductor and narrator, the group embarked on a journey exploring themes of love, conflict, hope and peace through eras marked by hit songs of the time, and live music to accompany the stories of characters.

The performance showcased the tremendous hard work and dedication of the Dementia and Creativity group in scripting, staging scenes, building narratives, developing character relationships and performing to audiences. To complement the performance, members from the Dementia and Creativity group ended the play with messages and words of advice, including to “Be Kind”, to “Be Happy” and to “Keep Going”.

Each Week the New Vic Education Team work alongside three groups of people who have all been impacted by Dementia. Exploring and engaging with creative activities ranging from singing, dancing and playing instruments, through to expressing thoughts and feelings through drawing or writing poetry, the sessions lend themselves to supporting health and wellbeing and combatting loneliness. Time Goes By was created as part of Kreative Foundations Confidence through drama programme by the group themselves and was based on their fundamental principles to approaching the world of theatre and performance, which include accepting and embracing achievements, having patience and allowing the beauty of each moment to arrive at its own time.

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Photo Gallery

As Time goes by - confidence through drama 2

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