Tiger Country ***

Hampstead Theatre, London

Free online screening

EXCERPT: "Fast paced, the play shifts between moments of fun, tension and pathos with a commendable ease and a solid grasp of the dramatic. My only real complaint is that it felt a bit too safe."

Summary

December is the busiest time of year for London’s hospitals. For one particular team it’s business as usual, even with the seasonal upsurge.

Brian, the urology consultant, is audaciously trying to convince his superior, Mr Leffe, to swap irksome patients. Newcomer Emily has already discharged 5 people and it’s not even 10am. Her boyfriend James, a dishy doctor, is as usual engaged in charming his superiors – not to mention the eye-catching Rebecca. Feisty senior house officer Mark is wrestling with his bossy mentor Vashti to allow him to be more hands-on. And throughout it all, John, the cardiology registrar, simply can’t find a minute in the day to enjoy his roast turkey sandwich…

Written and directed by Nina Raine.

Thoughts

I watched Nina Raine's Tiger Country by virtue of Hampstead Theatre's decision to stream it online for free. It worked incredibly well - not least, I'm sure, because this assured piece about the NHS was intelligent, meticulously researched, and engaging to boot. It exposes the pressure doctors are under, and that the NHS is an institution that just isn't built for the volume of people that now require it. I found its focus on personal relationships (within a grander overview of the industry) particularly illuminating about traits or practices that medic friends of mine have: it goes a long way to explaining why excessive alcohol consumption is standard (to blot out pressures at work) and why most medics end up with other medics (it would be very tricky to convey the nature of the hospital's world to someone not part of it). 

What I thought was particularly impressive was how credibly Raine has reconstructed the medical world. Nothing feels forced or laboured - from the jargon used, to the mounting tension during surgical procedures. Fast paced, the play shifts between moments of fun, tension and pathos with a commendable ease and a solid grasp of the dramatic. My only real complaint is that it felt a bit too safe. I like the lack of a political agenda - stuff about the NHS could far too easily become a socialist diatribe about how politicians are failing us - and she did well not to either victimise or idolise the NHS staff we see, but show them as real people, with all the complexities that that involves. However, I'd have liked it to be a bit more thought provoking and to push at the boundaries a bit more - for both the left and right wing members of the audience. There wasn't enough moral dilemma in there for it to feel like a real meaty piece of work. Nonetheless, immensely watchable.