Who Cares, Royal Court Theatre, London - review

In the normal run of things, starting an evening in the A&E department of a hospital would be a disaster. In this case, though, it is the prelude to an impassioned and informative piece of political documentary drama about one of the biggest issues in this year's UK general election: the National Health Service. In Michael Wynne's play, the NHS itself is the patient - a dearly beloved one - and the diagnosis is distressing.

Wynne spent 18 months travelling the country, interviewing people involved in the health service at every level, including nurses, paramedics, doctors, whistleblowers, executives and politicians (even former secretary of state for health Andrew Lansley). Their words, verbatim, are woven into the piece, which leads us round the back corridors of the theatre, which has been designed to look like a hospital, pausing for encounters with individuals who share their experiences.

We begin in a mocked-up A&E department, where waiting patients slump, resigned or comatose, and medical staff whirl through, rattling off vital statistics, just as they do in hospital TV soap operas. But here the numbers relate not to patients but to the institution: it is the fifth largest employer in the world and, according to one poll of British people, the most important institution in the UK. "It's the best gift the British people have given themselves," says one senior consultant.

But it is fighting to stay afloat. In the play's first act, entitled "Symptoms", we meet nurses and doctors struggling to balance paperwork, patient needs and budgets. There is the upsetting account of Julie Bailey, who exposed the failings of the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust. There is also dry comedy - the efforts of successive politicians to reorganise the health service are drolly staged as a blundering operation.

The second act, staged as a cross between forum and party, offers "diagnosis" as multiple voices discuss why the NHS is struggling; some cite the strain of expectation, several criticise the impact of privatisation, others suggest that everyone needs to pay a little more. There is no simple answer. But there is a deeply felt consensus that the plight and future of the NHS is a matter of grave national concern. Delivered by a versatile cast in a production that is, aptly, the result of teamwork between three directors - Debbie Hannan, Lucy Morrison and Hamish Pirie - this is a witty show, but it is also a serious, compassionate and urgent piece of political theatre.

royalcourttheatre.com

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