This Could Harm a Bit review Unapologetic pro-NHS agitprop

This May possibly Harm A Bit … directed with clinical ability by Max Stafford-Clark. Photograph: John Haynes

Considering that the NHS is never ever out of the headlines and directly has an effect on most of us, our theatre has extended been crying out for a new play on the topic. And while Stella Feehily’s piece, co-created by Out of Joint and the Octagon, is unapologetic agitprop on behalf of a beleaguered services, it can make its points most effectively when it captures the combine of care and chaos you discover in wards up and down the nation.

1. This May Hurt a Bit


2. Octagon,


3. Bolton


4. BL1 1SB

1. Until 5 April



2. Box workplace:
   01204 520661


3. Venue web site

At its heart lies the story of one family’s encounter of the wellness services. It commences with the widowed Nicholas currently being diagnosed with prostate troubles and then subjected to delayed check-ups. But, not like his snooty sister and her American surgeon-husband, Nicholas stays a passionate advocate of the NHS. When his mom, Iris, suffers an attack that turns out to be a unusual situation of “transient global amnesia”, we get a vivid image of daily life in a geriatric ward. There may possibly be blood on the ceiling and a corpse behind a curtain, but there is complete commitment from the harassed employees. Obtaining lately had an op myself, I can vouch for the accuracy of much of what Feehily has to say: NHS health care therapy is brilliant, but administrative upheaval is placing a hefty strain on the system. Feehily leaves us in minor doubt exactly where the blame lies and tends to make her stage in a range of methods.

We get easy lectures on the folly of private finance initiatives, frontal assaults on the current wellness and social care bill, a witty embodiment of the NHS as a bed-bound patient mucked about with by a succession of prime ministers, along with choral pieces and synchronised motion. Even if a working battle in between Aneurin Bevan, founding father of the NHS, and Winston Churchill appears a bit clunky, the perform adds up to a passionate defence of nationalised medicine and a contact to battle for its preservation.

Max Stafford-Clark directs with clinical skill and a cast of eight switch roles to give a shifting healthcare mosaic. Stephanie Cole is staunch and downright as the unflinching Iris who tells her son-in-law to eff off when he delivers her personal treatment method. There is also fine perform from Brian Protheroe as her devoted son, Tristram Wymark as an incontinent vicar, Frances Ashman as a dementia patient and Natalie Klamar as a nurse forced to make life-and-death selections. You may see much more ambivalent plays this yr, but couple of that truly feel so urgently topical.

This Could Harm a Bit review Unapologetic pro-NHS agitprop