1948 the winter is freezing austerity is biting and Iris Elcock GP socialist and Labour Party councillor is working tirelessly to implement Nye Bevan s National Health Service Act and its revolutionary promise of free healthcare for all. At home she is a mother and wife to a fellow GP an ex Navy man scarred by the war But a chance meeting with George Blythe a local boy who has made it to Hollywood turns her quiet certain world upside down. A story of political and private passions Lucy Kirkwood s play The Human Body was first performed at the Donmar Warehouse London in 2024 directed by Michael Longhurst and Ann Yee and starring Keeley Hawes and Jack Davenport Kirkwood is the most rewarding dramatist of her generation Independent Kirkwood s script crackles with unspoken desires disappointments yearning and some fantastic humour deftly weaves bigger politics with the politics of a marriage and affair Guardian Delicate and poignant has its author s characteristic intelligence and wit the dialogue crammed with texture and vivacity The Stage The Human Body NHB Modern Plays 3. Kirkwood is not only one of the most prolific but fascinating contemporary English playwrights the natural heir to Caryl Churchill in both the breadth and complexity of her output and I count myself amongst her biggest fans Her last play in 2022 Rapture was a brilliantly theatric tour de force So it pains me that her new play just doesn t seem to measure up I m just not sure what the point of it all was perhaps simply a paeon to the sacrifices personal professional and national that lead to the establishment of the NHS and how that needs to be acknowledged and protected now that the august institution is under attack Odd that two of the highest profile plays of the year this and Tim Price s book Nye 209705334 are both about the establishment of the NHS But that all is couched in a rather simplistic and must be said rather insipid period romance I am sure Keeley Hawes and Jack Davenport were eminently worth seeing in it but still 1788507762