A Furious man, with much to be furious about...
The charms, and I may be using that word quite wrongly, of the Olivier at the National Theatre beckoned again, for an early preview of ‘Nye’ and Michael Sheen.
The Olivier stage is well used, primarily as a hospital setting, with ward curtains and hospital beds and pretty much nothing else; it must have cost pound, but in fact a very effective use of the Olivier stage, given a pros arch feel by the curtaining. That the set doubled as Parliament (Debating Chamber and Tea Room), the Bevan home, a mine, No 10, and more shows its flexibility.
There was a large cast (twenty four, many doubling and trebling) and in many ways it was a good ensemble piece, with several outstanding performances – from Sheen as Bevan, from Sharon Small as Jennie Lee, from Roger Evans as Archie Lush; Tony Jayawardena as a very credible Churchill and Stephanie Jacob as Clem Attlee (both the latter as part of a doubled contribution).
As a stickler I ought to note that the history isn’t always quite right, but the sentiment (particularly Bevan’s and Lee’s) certainly is. The characterisations are of course relatively unsubtle (it’s that sort of piece), but not untrue.
Purporting to be the last few days of Bevan’s life (he actually died in July 1960), following an operation that discovered more than it was looking for, it backtracks through his life back to his painful stuttering schooldays, his early socialism in Tredegar and Ebbw Vale – through to his fight to launch the NHS in 1948. [His later years, fighting (and losing) the leadership battle following Atlee’s retirement, together with his last campaigns are not mentioned, but perhaps don’t need to be; that isn’t the brunt of the story Tim Price wanted to tell].
It’s a good play, with great acting and good direction from Rufus Norris, but at 160 minutes including a 20 minute interval perhaps a tad too long, although it didn’t noticeably drag.
As a final aside, it was Hugh Gaitskell, Atlee’s last Chancellor of the Exchequer (with whom I share 2 schools and a University) who, as early as 1949, forecast that the NHS was not financially sustainable in the long run. It was to Gaitskell, the Labour leader before Wilson, that Bevan lost his leadership campaign. Gaitskill was strongly rumoured to be a KGB assassination victim – plus ça change, eh, Mr Putin?
[Gaitskell had met Premier Khrushchev in Moscow on 1st January 1963 and was admitted to hospital (unexpectedly) in London on the 4th and was dead by the 18th. Gaitskell was known to have no real sympathy for Soviet Communists - although he had argued for admission of Red China to the UN, but against Britain’s entry to the EEC and unilateral nuclear disarmament, which latter he shared with Bevan - famous for his desire 'not to go naked into the Conference Chamber'].