The battle for the NHS: Martina Laird (Nurse Hannah). Photo credit: Tristram Kenton
Play: Who Cares
Theatre: The Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, Royal Court Theatre
Playwright: Michael Wynne
Directors: Debbie Hannan, Lucy Morrison and Hamish Pirie
Review by Esha Chaman
With a General Election looming, Who Cares touches at the very heart of most Britons’ primary political concern: the future of the NHS.
Michael Wynne’s verbatim play brings the NHS and the voices of its workforce to life and takes the audience on a physical journey through the back spaces of the Royal Court Theatre to deliver a raw, honest and sentimental production.
The play opens in the chaotic and nauseating atmosphere of an A&E waiting room. It takes a few minutes to realise the play has started as the audience file in.
A cluster of patients are slumped on a bench in the middle of the waiting room, while a cleaner mops around them. Nurse Marjorie (affectionately played by Eileen O’Brien) gives a verbal testimony on how and why she became a nurse.
The sentimentality of Nurse Marjorie’s story is juxtaposed by intercom announcements and factual interjections from consultants, doctors and porters who dart in and out of the scene. Facts, such as the NHS being the fifth largest employer in the world, punctuate the dialogue amid patient grumblings over the achingly long A&E waiting times.
As the chaos and tempers’ escalate, the scene ends and the audience is split into colour-coded groups and are escorted through the rest of the play, which is made up of smaller, intimate and vignette-like scenes.
Upon receiving a welcome from GP Louise (Elizabeth Berrington), you would be forgiven for thinking you had walked into a doctor’s appointment before being whisked off to a breezy terrace where three nurses – Hannah (the wonderful Martina Laird), Lisa (Vineeta Rishi) and Carl (Paul Hickey), are taking a tea break while discussing the bureaucratic pressures, the stresses of responsibility and being slated in the media.
The transitions from one scene to the next are fluid and give structure to the mosaic of views, including a paramedic called Dave (Nathaniel Martello-White) who reveals that “there is a little bit of a class system” in the NHS.
Every nook and cranny of the theatre’s hidden spaces are well used and are transformed convincingly into operating surgeries for one scene where an ex-NHS chief executive (Hickey) and ex-Department of Health bod (Robert Bathurst) nonchalantly discuss how inadequate government policies have failed to improve the NHS, and shockingly reveal that is isn’t regarded as a political priority.
The real story behind the headlines: Nathaniel Martello-White (paramedic). Photo credit: Tristram Kenton
It’s a relief to be seated for the last 20 minutes of the play, in which the heady mix of perspectives are woven together. The presence of GP Jonathan (Philip Arditti) is helpful as he identifies the various speakers such as Jacky the radiologist (Rishi), who recalls a time before the NHS was established, and the NHS regulator (Martello-White) who asks: “Is our love of the NHS its biggest problem?”
Underscoring all this is Julie’s (Berrington) account of how her formal complaint against the Mid Staffordshire Hospital’s failings in treating her mother led to the launch of the Care Quality Commission’s investigation. The reality of financial pressures and staff cuts suddenly hit home.
Who Cares requires patience and a readiness to stand through most of its scenes which takes you through the Royal Court’s intricate network of corridors and staircases. However the journeying element of the play serves as an effective metaphor for the stress and bustle of the hospital environment.
Wynne’s well researched, informative and edgy dialogue is to be commended. He uses the verbatim format to expose an array of unheard voices from hospital staff to policy makers. And having three directors is ingenious and enlivens, not stifles, the scene transitions, which are largely flawless, as is the wonderful ensemble cast.
The NHS is brought to life in an intimate and theatrical way which makes it a worthwhile and educational experience, offering much food for thought to chew on ahead of (and after) the election.
Who Cares will be at the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs at the Royal Court Theatre until 16 May 2015