Photography Exhibition of Guinea Pig Plastic Patients

From Fri 5 – Sat 27 York Theatre Royal will display a photography exhibition by Lucinda Marland.

The portraits are of members of The Guinea Pig Club, savagely burned WWII pilots who were among the first people to receive pioneering plastic surgery in the 1940s by maverick surgeon Archibald McIndoe. The exhibition will accompany the Theatre Royal's new play - The Guinea Pig Club, which stars Graeme Hawley (Coronation Street,YorkMystery Plays 2012) as Archibald McIndoe.

During the second world war, a group of young airmen with terrible injuries formed an exclusive drinking club. They were all in the care of pioneering plastic surgeon Sir Archibald McIndoe whose techniques shaped modern reconstructive surgery. 

 

The extraordinary new play is written by internationally acclaimed authorSusan Watkins,recently widowed from former F1 Medical Chief,Sid Watkins.She is a close friend ofBernie Ecclestone, whose biography she wrote. In researching and writingThe Guinea Pig Club, and an earlier screenplay, Susan delved into her friendship of thirty years with of the surviving members of the Guinea Pig Club Dr. Sandy Saunders, as well as interviewing other British and Canadian Guinea Pigs; a former surgical assistant to McIndoe; McIndoe's daughter the late Vanora Marland; and her own surgeon husband, Prof. Sid Watkins.  In addition, Susan utilized biographies; pilots' accounts of their experiences; scientific journals; 'Guinea Pig', the monthly magazine of the Guinea Pig Club; and Sir Archibald McIndoe's own lectures and papers.

 

At the outset of World War II cosmetic surgeon Archibald McIndoe - whose expertise in fashioning the noses of starlets brings him fame but not fulfillment- must abandon plans for retirement to pioneer the most challenging procedures in surgical history, including the complete reconstruction of the human face.

 

But McIndoe soon discovers that all his efforts in the operating theatre are futile unless he can also save the shattered man behind the face.'For what good is a face without a man - a whole man?'This then becomes his mission - and his own salvation.  

 

The exhibition will be held in the York Theatre Royal downstairs foyer and is free to view.

 

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