Table 1 Summary of the aims of BRIGHTLIGHT, the performance and this paper

Aims of BRIGHTLIGHT

To evaluate specialist care for young people with cancer in England. Evaluating whether treating young people in a specialist cancer unit with professionals who are expert at treating cancer and expert at treating young people impacts on young people’s quality of life, survival and experience of being a young person with cancer

Aims of performance

To increase accessibility and reach of the BRIGHTLIGHT results. Particularly to enable those impacted most by cancer in young people, young people themselves, the opportunity to see the results in an understandable way. We also sought to allow more multidisciplinary professionals access to the results but not confining dissemination to traditional peer reviewed articles and conference presentations which are often inaccessible to many members of the multidisciplinary team involved in the care of young people.

We aimed to ensure young people were at the heart of the production allowing them to interpret the emerging BRIGHTLIGHT results as they felt appropriate.

Aim of this paper

Describe the process of creating the theatrical performance, ‘There is a Light: BRIGHTLIGHT’, from a programme of research, and the evaluation of the impact of the subsequent performance on the audience, cast and research team.