Stage play spotlights medical workers’ role in fight against COVID

A stage play reproducing touching scenes of medical care in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic made its debut at the Shanghai Oriental Art Center on Tuesday.

Sixty medical worker representatives who dedicated themselves to the front line treatment of the novel coronavirus star in the play that combines art forms of recitation, narration, and music performance.

Some other efforts of fighting against contagions at home and abroad throughout history also feature in the play.

As a fruit of the collaboration of the medical and art industries in Shanghai, the play pays tribute to the dedication and bravery of the doctors and nurses. It also shows the medical workers' dedication to respecting lives, said the performance organizers.

Some impressive incidents during the fight against COVID-19 are highlighted in the play.

They include medical workers taking the initiative to request to aid Wuhan when the epidemic first broke out, doctors dealing with uncooperative patients when they first arrive at Fangcang shelter hospitals in Wuhan, and Shanghai hospitals dispatching elite teams in their best disciplines to aid the city's designated medical institution to treat the cases.

"Through watching this situational narrative performance themed medical humanities, the first of its kind in the country, we hope that the audiences will better understand doctors and nurses' hard work and their strong sense of mission when the society faced a new type of contagion," said Xu Jianguang, director of the Shanghai Medical Association and chairman of the Shanghai Medical Doctor Association.

The performance is jointly organized by the Office of Shanghai Health Promotion Committee, the Shanghai Medical Doctor Association, and the Shanghai Health Promotion Center among others under the guidance of several institutions, including the Chinese Medical Doctor Association and the Shanghai Health Commission.