From Fleming to Lifeline: theatre, narrative and public engagement in antimicrobial stewardship

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a defining global health threat, yet public understanding of why antibiotic stewardship matters remains limited and statistical communication alone is rarely sufficient. Arts-based interventions offer a complementary route to engagement that reaches the affective domain of learning. Lifeline, a musical staged at Southwark Playhouse Elephant in May 2026 by Charades Theatre Company, which evolved from the company’s formally evaluated predecessor production The Mould that Changed the World, dramatizes Sir Alexander Fleming’s discovery of penicillin alongside contemporary clinical narratives, including a patient who dies because no effective antibiotic remains, and another who survives through stewardship-supported care. Its rotating chorus of real-life clinicians, scientists and policy-makers models the One Health response that AMR demands. Drawing on the experience of taking postgraduate medicine, Master of Public Health students from the University of Hertfordshire to attend the production, this Viewpoint argues that arts-based public engagement merits a recognized, funded and evaluated place within antimicrobial stewardship education and public-health communication.