Touching and vital, Tending gives voice to the countless nurses who are the backbone of the National Health Service (NHS).
For anyone who has never worked in the NHS, it can be hard to grasp what the staff experience. Aside from being the biggest employer in Europe, the health service has also been described as our “national religion” – so special is the place it has in the hearts of citizens of all political persuasions. It remains our biggest source of national pride, despite its many challenges, ranking highest in a poll of “what makes you proud to be British”, and with 72% of the public polled believing it is crucial to British society. There is a reason it was the centrepiece of London’s Olympic opening ceremony in 2012.
What the general public do not see are the hard edges. While there are numerous positives to take from a career in the NHS, not least the camaraderie and the sense of satisfaction when someone gets well, the reality of witnessing and absorbing repeated traumas cannot be understated. In some ways it was always thus, but after more than a decade of cuts to wages, budgets and infrastructure, the unrelenting pressure is bringing our NHS – and her staff – to their knees.
Tending seeks to highlight and demystify some of these experiences, presenting them to the audience in full technicolour. Inspired by playwright El Blackwood’s friendship with an ICU nurse, and forged from interviews with over 70 frontline nursing staff, the three performers share stories of the sights, sounds and smells at the sharp end: the highs and the devastating lows.
The verbatim accounts are introduced by a sombre soundscape and voiceovers which set the scene. Skillfully directed by John Livesey, the staging is simple and very effective. The three actors are dressed in scubs, with a simple set of chairs, strip lighting and blinds to indicate the hospital setting. Initially the stories are told via direct address to the audience, but as the piece develops there are more opportunities for the characters to interact and voice shared experiences. Although the characters represent an amalgamation of the interview subjects, each feels like they have a clear, developed persona and their own agency in the work.
El Blackwood, Mara Allen and Ben Lynn all give thoughtful, nuanced performances that add power and emotion to the accounts they share. Blackwood’s nurse always wanted to work with children, and though she shares a number of uplifting interactions, the memory of one particular girl haunts her throughout the piece. Allen’s nurse is bubbly and outgoing, but is gradually worn down by the weight of her experiences – representing the vast number of NHS staff who have suffered stress, burnout and mental ill-health. Lynn’s character originally wanted to be a doctor, but makes clear what a change to a career in nursing offered him, in spite of the hard times.
There is no story of the NHS in recent years that can escape the spectre of Covid, and that is one element of the piece that the audience may find the most affecting and eye-opening. The pressure and traumatic experiences that the pandemic wrought on our already overstretched services and carers cannot be underestimated, and Tending does not shy away from these accounts. The concept of “resilience”, the illusion of being unbreakable, was shattered by those unprecedented times, and although the world has now moved on the rates of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) amongst healthcare staff show no sign of abating. The estimate in 2022 was that 60,000 NHS staff were living with PTSD, with 89% of the workforce saying it would take them many years to recover. The characters in Tending highlight that psychological support was not offered to staff until halfway through Covid, and the ongoing impact on mental health.
The play also touches on the reasons for the nurses strikes (alongside other health workers), and underscores why they were and remain necessary. Pay restoration, safe staffing, the ability to have breaks, cover for absence and workers adequately trained for the role they are undertaking is far from having been achieved.
It is no small feat to take on the responsibility of sharing the story of 400,000 nurses, but Tending has met the challenge head-on. What Larynx have created is a moving, affecting verbatim piece that challenges the audience, while also educating them on a service they rely on and the humans working within it.
Tending is being run in conjunction with Cavell, working to support nurses either retired or still employed through personal or financial hardship.
By Deborah Klayman
Tending plays at Underbelly Cowgate, Edinburgh until August 25th, 2024.