Believe Me

Believe me is a sound performance that explores pain and believability through a reimagining of the folk ballad Edward. Drawing on interview-based narratives from patients and frontline healthcare workers, the work weaves a libretto from fragmented speech, examining contradictions within care. Blending folk music traditions with electronic sound design, the piece features synthesisers, field recordings, and layered vocals.

Inspired by Sara Ahmed’s conception of pain as relational, Believe me questions how pain is mediated through power. The piece crescendos with a haunting scene in a doctor’s office, where the patient encounters an underfunded healthcare system, and a central question is raised: Where is the pain? Is it individual, structural, or even shared? In the folk ballad Edward, a similar question is explored when a man mysteriously returns home with blood on his sword.

Written, Recorded, and Produced by Rachel Margetts.