We hope you had a great summer and many thanks to everyone who is keeping us informed with their various complaints.

This isn't a standard NC newsletter; one of those will follow soon. We'd just like to publicise the new comedy play, Alternative, by Trunkman Productions, which runs from 13th to 18th September at the Etcetera Theatre in Camden.

We enjoyed a preview of this play a few weeks ago and Trunkman very kindly promoted the Nightingale Collaboration in their publicity material. Predictably, this has led to speculation from certain quarters that we are helping to fund the play, but we're not! As it says on our website, we run on a shoestring budget. However, we are pleased to offer our support in helping to publicise this work, which has attracted some excellent reviews and has annoyed some proponents of alternative therapies!

Tickets are available from Ticketweb on 020 7482 485 or at the door.

From Trent and Melinda Burton of Trunkman Productions:

Back in August we previewed our new comedy play 'Alternative'. The show is about a man with a mystery illness and his quest for a diagnosis. He's stuck between a relatively clueless GP, a nagging girlfriend and a homeopath for a sister. She's positive she can help… It's all about how the rational can become irrational when their health is on the line.

The previews went rather well with a sold out opening night audience that included Simon Singh and Edzard Ernst. We got some great reviews as well. The Pod Delusion declared us, 'The best peer reviewed show in London' and leading theatre critics site The New Current called it 'Consistently hilarious.' The Alliance for Natural Health called us 'Flat-Earthers'. Bless them.

Our first aim — with any show — is to entertain our audience and we hope that through entertaining we can inform and also spark debate about issues. The issue we've delved into with this show is alternatives and specifically that of alternative medicine. It's not a common subject on London theatre stages, I grant you, and it's certainly ruffled a few feathers but that's the way we like it!

For us at Trunkman Productions, producing 'Alternative' in association with The Nightingale Collaboration isn't just a privilege but also a natural fit, if you'll pardon the pun. We're trying to introduce Nightingale to the theatre-going public, who may not be aware of their work, or even the issues surrounding alternative medicine. Likewise current supporters of Nightingale like yourselves may not be aware that there are shows out there on the London stage tailored to your interests.

'Alternative' is a character-driven comedy set in the world of alternative medicine rather than one that simply aims to take pot shots at it. Let's be honest — that'd be too easy. This focuses on the often all too familiar situations that can arise that lead people to alternatives. Hopefully the theatre-goer who has never considered alternative medicine to be an issue that even needed debating in the first place, might now see things differently.

And for the skeptic in the crowd, here's ninety minutes of comedy in a world and a debate we're very accustomed to. Also there's a slew of in-jokes you can take pride in getting that others may not!

So we hope you enjoy the show as, together with Nightingale, we continue to spread a rational message with our own brand of comedy.