Culture Society, Identity and Belonging
Adding to the NHS’s heaving hagiography is Nye, a whistlestop journey of the life of founder and political firebrand Aneurin Bevan, played by Michael Sheen. Starting in one of “his” hospitals in 1960, where Bevan has undergone ominous ulcer surgery, the play winds back to his childhood in a Welsh mining town then zips through the key moments in his biography – meeting his future wife Jenny Lee, waging rhetorical war with Winston Churchill during the actual war with Germany, before rising to become minister for health (and housing) under Clement Atlee and battling with doctors to secure his “vision”, a health service free at the point of use. There are occasional moments of genuine emotion, particularly the scenes involving his miner father, but in the main Nye is more of a romp played for laughs. Written by Tim Price and directed by Rufus Norris, the play fails to get to the heart of the man. But Sheen, who spends the entire show in some fetching pyjamas, and some imaginative set design makes this a worthy addition to the genre.
Also out… High & Low: John Galliano. Kevin Macdonald directs and Anna Wintour produces this Conde Nast Entertainment documentary about the working-class south Londoner who became the first Brit in charge of a Paris couture house. Macdonald tries to unpick his 2011 fall – a drunken anti-Semitic rant caught on camera. The addiction narrative is gently handled, but the Middle East conflict gives a sting to his absolution.