Behind every extraordinary feat are ordinary people. This is their story.

It’s 1950 and Alexander Fleming has discovered penicillin, the world’s first antibiotic, which will change medicine forever. In present-day Edinburgh, junior doctor Jess faces the unthinkable when her estranged childhood sweetheart is rushed to her hospital. As old feelings resurface and old cures are put to the test, critical decisions must be made. With 100 years of history separating Jess from Fleming’s discovery, will this miracle cure still work?


Fresh from a debut run off-Broadway and starring a chorus of real-life health workers and scientists alongside a professional cast, LIFELINE is a moving, big-hearted celebration of the everyday people who make the extraordinary happen – and a rallying wake-up call for our global future.

THE ISSUE BEHIND LIFELINE

LIFELINE raises awareness of the urgent global health threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), which is linked to 5 million deaths per year.  Antibiotics are losing their efficacy with alarming speed, rendering life-threatening infections incurable.

This is a problem that affects us all – from the fish farmers in Bangladesh, to the midwives in Nigeria, to the musical theatre performers on Broadway. If we don’t act quickly, routine operations such as C-sections or cancer treatment will become unfeasibly dangerous.

By turning this global issue into stories about everyday lives, the musical uses the extraordinary power of the Arts to move hearts and minds to act quickly, before it is too late.

TWO TIMELINES: FLEMING + JESS

LIFELINE intertwines the story of Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming’s 1928 world-changing discovery of penicillin with the story of Jess, a present-day doctor, whose childhood sweetheart, Aaron, is fighting for his life having developed an an AMR infection after a routine cancer operation. Almost 100 years after the discovery, will Fleming’s miracle cure still work effectively enough to save Aaron’s life?

THE CAST AND CHORUS

Uniquely, LIFELINE combines a touring professional West End cast of actors with a chorus of scientists and healthcare professionals auditioned in each city the show tours to. This allows us not only to connect with local communities, but also give a voice to the people who are fighting AMR for us all everyday.

THE JOURNEY SO FAR

LIFELINE is a two-time Edinburgh Festival Fringe sell-out (2018 and 2022). It ran Off-Broadway for 5-weeks at Signature Theatre on New York’s West 42nd St (Autumn 2024), during which time it became the first ever musical to perform on the floor of the United Nations General Assembly. The show has also toured to the east coast of the USA (2022), Glasgow (2022) and London (2018). It has also been showcased at the UK Houses of Parliament and in Barbados for Prime Minister Mia Mottley.

Previously entitled The Mould that Changed the World, the show underwent significant re-development in 2023 to incorporate numerous modern day patient stories that the producers had collected from around the world.  A concept album of the re-invented show was released on NYC-based Center Stage Records in July 2024. The album features a cast of original cast members, friends from Broadway and chorus members from both the UK and USA.

WHAT IS AMR?

Five million people a year die from illness linked to antibiotic resistance. It just might be the biggest threat to humanity you have never heard of.

Antibiotics are drugs used to treat infections caused by bacteria and only bacteria. In the past eighty years they have saved millions of lives. Antibiotic resistance, a type of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), is a natural process allowing bacteria to evolve defenses that renders our drugs less effective. If we used antibiotics sensibly, only when we really needed them, we might have enough time to halt the spread of resistance through the population and develop new drugs to fight infection. 

Unfortunately, we overuse antibiotics to treat infections that might improve by themselves, that are caused by viruses, and we even use them to fatten animals raised in the meat industry. This overuse has led to the creation of superbugs, bacteria that are resistant to most or all of the antibiotics we throw at them. These resistant bacteria are now linked to about 5 million deaths globally every year. Without urgent action, this number is only going to rise.

THE LIFELINE PROJECT PODCAST

The Lifeline Project explores the science and the process behind the musical.

APPLE PODCASTS SPOTIFY