BLACK HOLE SIGN | TRAVERSE THEATRE, EDINBURGH
★★★★
“A vital comment on the erosion of our, ‘broken, bleeding’ NHS…”
A blast of Queen’s 1981 chart-topper Under Pressure sets the mood for what’s to follow in Uma Nada-Rajah’s 90 minute play Black Hole Sign, which gives a lived insight into the state of our crumbling National Health Service, a healthcare provider that was once the envy of the world.
Nada-Rajah states in her play notes that ‘there is something so funny and tragic about day-to-day life in hospital’ and that she ‘wanted to capture that sense of absurdity in a play that will make people laugh or cry’ while causing them to thinking ‘about the significance of care in modern society’ – she succeeds on all three counts.
Thought-provoking, angry and with elements that wouldn’t be out of place in a remake of Carry On Nurse, Black Hole Sign is defiant and darkly, funny. It would be funnier still were the laughs not laced with the knowledge that Nada-Rajah, a serving nurse, has based her on stage observations on those she has experienced in the real world.
Set on Anna Orton’s functionally impersonal ‘hospital’ set (all screens, a bed and a nurses station), it’s a design that will be instantly recognisable to anyone who has visited a NHS facility recently. The piece finds Crea, a Senior Charge Nurse, attempting to survive another night shift in Almondvale Hospital’s understaffed A&E department on the verge of collapse – literally, when a hole suddenly appears in the ceiling.
With just Billy the porter, Ani, an energy-drink fuelled staff nurse, and the gormless student nurse Lina to assist her, chaos is never far away – enter patients and Tersia, a delusional Octogenarian with a UTI, Fred, a man with spike in his backside, and the terminally ill Frank Hopper, a man facing his final moments alone.
A six-strong cast, four playing multiple roles, are led by the monumental presence of Helen Logan as Crea, who perfectly captures the frustration and despair of a woman fighting a losing battle that’s not so much ‘taking two steps forward one step back’ as ‘running just to stand still’ – yet it’s remains a portrayal full of compassion.
Similarly, Dani Heron is compelling as Ani, juggling multiple patients while determined to honour her mantra that no one should die alone. Good support comes from Martin Docherty as porter Billy and in a raucously funny turn as Fred Turnbull, while Betty Valencia is hilarious and terrifying, in equal measure, as the clueless student nurse left to make potentially life or death decisions.
In a play where gallows humour is never far away, Nada-Rajah’s script remains sharply considered and is a vital comment on the erosion of our, ‘broken, bleeding’ NHS and a timely reminder, if one were needed, of what we are losing a little more every day.
Until 18 October. Tickets here.
