Review: TENDING, Riverside Studios

Writer El Blackwood's Tending, produced by Another Theatre, is a three-hander based on more than 700 verbatim interviews with NHS nurses over a two-year period. She boils everything down into three characters: a paediatric ICU nurse played by Blackwood, palliative care nurse (Anjelica Serra) and A&E nurse (Ben Lynn).

On a spare set of three plastic blue chairs, white screen and cold, fluorescent strip light we're catapulted into a world of impersonal hospital corridors reeking of disinfectant and unfriendly waiting rooms where you'd rather not wait. Yes, we're in a medical drama – one dedicated to the nursing profession, with perhaps a bit less emphasis on the drama, and regrettably, more on the exposition about the drama.

On the one hand, Tending's a love letter to the NHS and its dedicated nurses. On the other hand it's a rant about all that's sorely wrong with nursing today in Britain's health care system.

There's a good deal about small acts of caring: stroking hands, cups of tea and hand massages. Equally, there's sacrifice – oh, what one would give for a sandwich or some sleep, for instance – cleaning up other people's poo and crazy amounts of paperwork that diminishes time with patients.

And there's a whole section on the horrors of working in beeping, futuristic Covid wards. Nurses try to stop patients yanking out tubes, nurses tell families they can't see loved ones and nurses tape bin bags on when PPE's damaged or runs out. Serra's character, who burns out while doing long hours during the Pandemic, points out that you "just do your best, but when that's someone's life at stake it doesn't cut it".

There's talk of a visiting government health minister, who doesn't talk to the nurses. Then more talk of a Member of Parliament being admitted ­­who's seen to ridiculously quickly. No one thinks to ask what the nurses really need.

I agree with the sentiment behind's Blackwood's play.  Nurses work extremely hard and their work should be recognised more. Clapping and banging spoons on saucepans might make us feel better, but how does it help nurses?

At the end of a well-intentioned Tending, I came away somewhat better informed, and yet not as moved as I expected. I absolutely understand the subject matter and admire the efforts of the cast and Production Team in this one-hour show, but the play touches the head and not the heart.

I would like to see Blackwood's material really chime with audiences, like Jack Thorne did in the recent Netflix series of Adolescence. His character-driven drama deals with the insidious appeal of incel culture in an explosive and heart-wrenching way.

Maybe the characters in Tending could be fleshed out more, giving the actors more action and agency in a script that could include more doing and less verbatim telling. A kind of A Chorus Line, with nurses instead of dancers in a chorus line, where each has their own, well-rounded story with a mash-up of black humour and poignancy.

Tending runs at Riverside Studios until May 4.