Nye, the NHS, and the NT - LOOKING AFTER EVERYONE

Editor-in-chief Peter Wix experiences enhanced access to a London stage triumph that explores the origins of the most universal example of accessibility we have: the NHS. Caring is a concept nature illustrates as inexhaustibly as it does cruelty and indifference. And with rampant regularity from a dispassionate distance, humanity puts on a show that covers the spectrum from gory odium to heart-melting tenderness. As long as the communications end of our culture serves us mostly from the darker ranges, we cannot be surprised if our priorities get confused and the tribe - even the healthcare collective - pays no more than lip service to the idea of legislated compassion for all. So, when Michael Sheen, as NHS founder Nye Bevan in the splendid National Theatre production Nye, asks his father's ghost "did I look after everyone?", his valedictory line types hard with layered and loaded meanings through the claps and welling...