Sick
Almost all of us have had some sort of experience with an NHS hospital. Maybe your grandma has had a hip replacement. Maybe your diabetes makes you a regular, or you’ve had your stomach pumped after a raucous night out. The 70-year-old institution has served most of us, and this is what makes Shey Hargreave’s Sick so poignant.
Hargreaves is an ex-NHS receptionist, and through her “storytelling show”, she relays her experience of working in an emergency medical unit. Besides a sign language interpreter, Hargreaves was alone on the Norwich Arts Centre stage. She also barely had any props – just a desk with some bits of stationery on it. Few frills meant that Hargreaves commanded the stage, filling empty spaes with bold, beguiling stories. She gave a behind-the-scenes insight into NHS workings: the relationships, the protocols, the bureaucracy. Sick’s main focus, however, was Hargreaves’s experiences of the 2013 government cuts to the NHS. With her lucid voice and luminous storytelling style, Hargreaves explored how policy changes effected the lives of patients, staff, and their relations. Sick’s political core was undercut by well-timed comedy - Hargreaves’ unadorned humour had the audience giggling between periods of shocked silence and nods of understanding.
Sick ends with Hargreaves leaving the NHS. However, for her, and the rest of us, that’s not he end of the story. The NHS is still effected by policy changes, and we all still have links to the service. This is why Sick was touched a nerve with me, and I’m willing to bet that it did so for every other audience member. Hargreaves is a born performer, and she heightened this familiarity with emotive, knowing writing. Sick is a performance perfect for our times, and thanks to Hargreaves undeniable talent, a really enjoyable night out.
