Michael Sheen’s Nye is the opposite of its subject - uninspiring

Nye
National Theatre, London, until May 11, then Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff from May 18 to June 1

The idea of anyone getting into politics these days with the sole intention of making the country a better place – let alone gifting it the National Health Service, as Nye Bevan did – seems a quaint, if not anachronistic, notion.

Tim Price’s new play Nye is well-timed not only because of the all-pervading sense of cynicism with our politics, but also, more urgently, because the NHS is now facing an existential threat to its future under the Tories.

I was hoping for a play that put the case passionately for both the NHS and politicians who acted with integrity, but, even with the great Welsh actor Michael Sheen playing the great Welsh politician, it makes for a night of theatre that is worthy and dull rather than remotely inspiring.

It starts with Bevan dying in an NHS hospital bed. This certainly happened, but it hardly seems the way to accentuate the positives about the great national institution he was instrumental in creating. Sheen then pootles about the stage in his pyjamas, remembering the highs and lows of his life.

The gender-blind casting that follows – Stephanie Jacob plays both the matron and the Labour leader Clement Attlee, and then there’s Tony Jayawardena as Doctor Dain and Churchill – not to mention Bevan occasionally bursting out into song all makes for a slightly surreal atmosphere, but it’s seldom, if ever, terribly involving.

The play is directed by the National’s outgoing boss Rufus Norris and he’s leaving not so much on a high but at an indeterminate point somewhere between that and a low. A symbol of his mediocre stewardship.