Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh
Four stars
It's a strange sensation, hearing an actor open Max Stafford-Clark's
production of Stella Feehily's impassioned call to arms to save the NHS
with Socialist firebrand Aneurin Bevan's speech that launched this most
treasured of institutions in 1948. A politician with ideals and
integrity is such a rarity these days that it can't help but sound
heroic. This is the case too watching a piece of political agit-prop, a
form which not that long ago was considered to be passe, but which now
appears to have been reborn for the age of austerity with a vigorous
sense of righteous urgency.
This is with good cause, as Feelihy proves in the play's central tale
of one family's travails after their 90 year old mother Iris has a
stroke. A sadly familiar story of over-crowded and understaffed
hospital wards is punctuated by a series of sketch-like interludes, as
Bevan and Winston Churchill step out of the audience to form a double
act, and a weather girl points out exactly where all the health cuts
have been made. Even Death himself makes a cameo.
Drawn from extensive interviews with hospital patients and staff as
well as first-hand experience, Feelihy, Stafford-Clark and an
eight-strong cast led by Stephanie Cole as Iris have produced a damning
indictment of a government that puts corporate interests before saving
lives that is both funny and full of bemused rage. When one character
steps out to ask the audience “Why aren't people angry?”, the silence
may be deafening, but the way Westminster's current occupants are
going, it won't be that way for long.
The Herald, April 10th 2014
ends
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