Soho theatre, London
Directed by Blanche McIntyre, Nathan Ellis’s drama serves as a reminder of what cuts are doing to our health service but it tells more than it shows
The bone-deep exhaustion is palpable. The impact of being constantly relied upon is laid bare in Nathan Ellis’s strong but predictable NHS drama, where Anna (Jasmine Blackborow), a drained junior doctor, spends her too-long days apologising for the structure that is disintegrating around her. She is a good doctor who cannot cope any more. But how can anyone cope, Super High Resolution asks, when the system is this broken?
Blackborow is compelling as Anna: kind, resilient and yet gradually becoming numb. Her skill is like a sunbeam when she deals with a suicidal patient, played beautifully by Hayley Carmichael. But away from work and with nothing left to give, Anna crumbles. She wears scrubs throughout, even when she’s having sex, as if beneath what she offers to her job, there is nothing that remains of her.
At Soho theatre, London, until 3 December.
