This paper focuses on several images and metaphors from an artist residency at the Evelina Children's Hospital and subsequent production at the Unicorn Theatre, For the Best. The intention is to consider how reflecting on an arts-based process with children on dialysis, and their school-mates can provide new ways of viewing performance outcomes. The narrative about a family's struggle to manage with a young boy's long-term chronic illness under the shadow of death is both strange and familiar. The paper, authored by the project's producer and a close collaborator on the project provides insight into Mark Storor's delicate processes as a means of understanding the ways participation, partnerships and learning through the project may be seen as examples of the 'uncanny'.

As the profile of the arts-and-health sector grows and interdisciplinary projects with public outcomes become more common, it is important to explore roles and ways of working at the interface between different disciplines. The complex role of producer, likely to become increasingly relevant in this landscape, is here analysed. While incorporating aspects of existing roles (e.g. hospital arts manager, cultural venue participatory producer, independent creative producer, public engagement manager), the producer has a very specific raison d’être and could be defined as ‘relational producer’. This role is not well understood and yet central to this field of practice.

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