The Navigator Project
A Collaboration for Health Equity
About The Navigator Project
The Navigator Project is a collaboration between healthcare workers, researchers, theatre professionals and writers.
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The healthcare and research project is led by Balwani Mbakaya (University of Livingstonia, Malawi), Nontobeko Mdluli, Joe Gallagher and Mark Ledwidge (School of Medicine in University College Dublin, Ireland).
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The theatre project is led by Jim Culleton, Eva Scanlan, Laura MacNaughton, and Gavin Kostick from Fishamble: The New Play Company.
Public Call Out for Plays
The Navigator Project submissions are now now CLOSED.
Fishamble: The New Play Company – as part of The Navigator Project called for submissions of short plays of about 8 minutes’ duration (approximately 1,200 words) which focus on an aspect of health marginalisation or inequality, either in Ireland or in other cultures. The Call was open until Monday 10th November 2025 at 12pm Midday (Irish Time). We are delighted with the response and will be back soon with more information.
Listen to Jim Culleton, Artistic Director of Fishamble: The New Play Company talk about the Public Call Out for Plays on RTE's Morning Ireland 20th October 2025.
About Our Healthcare Work
The healthcare and research team is focused on primary and community care, including the prevention of chronic illnesses, such as heart failure, high blood pressure and diabetes, both in Ireland and Malawi. The team is also focused on the impact that bias and marginalisation have on health equality.
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The healthcare and research team have joined up with Fishamble: The New Play Company in a co-creation project to explore health equality through theatre and storytelling.​
About Our Inspiration
The Navigator Project takes inspiration from the ancient story of the Navigator Cessair, from Irish mythology, who fled climate change and marginalisation in East Africa to reach the western edge of the known world. She became the first person to settle on the island we now call Ireland.
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Today, our healthcare project is built by modern-day “Navigators” on a foundation which recognises shared humanity and health equality as a human right.
In a collaboration with Fishamble: The New Play Company, The Navigator Project embraces two-way learning from countries at the "bookends" of human migration: Malawi in East Africa and Ireland.
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The Navigator Project will examine how bias and marginalisation often begin with the stories we are told, or that we tell ourselves, with the aim of developing new stories about health inequality through theatre.
Éadaoin Glynn: The Navigator, 2022, image reproduced with permission of the artist.
Can the heart reflect marginalisation?
According to mythology, Cessair is said to have died of a broken heart. Heart disease remains the biggest global cause of death.
Our work highlights how gender/sex differences can lead to under-diagnosis and under-treatment of heart disease in women. Poor understanding of how these gender/sex differences evolve is at the root of this problem. Non-traditional risk factors for heart disease, such as pregnancy complication and menopause, are often ignored.
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Heart disease is also becoming a major problem in Malawi, where people live almost 20 years less than people in Ireland. This dramatic health inequality is compounded by poverty and limited access to healthcare and medicines.
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In Ireland, people from minority groups or with disabilities also have reduced life expectancy. A person's postcode is an important marker of health. Much work is needed in healthcare, education, and cultural exchange to resolve this health inequality.
We hope that the theatre we create in The Navigator Project will help raise awareness and change narratives about health equity.
Health equity
In Malawi, poverty and limited access to healthcare workers and treatments are the biggest challenges in healthcare. These issues can also be a challenge for people in Ireland, especially for members of minority groups.
Meitheal / Umunthu
The Navigator Project is aligned to community self-help practices such as "Meitheal" in Ireland (where people help each other according to their abilities) and "Umunthu" in Malawi (which means "I am because we are").
Shared humanity
The Navigator Project advocates for a broader understanding of identity, suggesting that we are all immigrants, just like Cessair. Migration provides refuge from poverty, conflict and climate change, just as Cessair's journey did. Migration can also create cultural exchange that enriches and connects communities.
Our Healthcare Team
Our Creative Team
The healthcare and research team have joined up with Fishamble: The New Play Company in a co-creation project to explore health equality through theatre and storytelling. The Navigator Project has commissioned four playwrights, some with a deep understanding of marginalised communities, to write short plays that tell stories of modern day “Navigators” who are responding to challenges, such as poverty, bias, racism and conflict.
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The commissioned playwrights are Carys D Coburn, Jade Jordan, Hannah Khalil and Rosaleen McDonagh
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They will be joined by four more writers, chosen following a call-out for submissions of short, 1,200-word plays.
Jim Culleton
Artistic Director
Eva Scanlon
Executive Director
