REVIEW: Why this play at Chichester's Minerva Theatre is so full of promise

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The birth of the NHS was not a straight-forward delivery for the new Labour government at the end of the second world war. Paul Unwin – who co-created TV’s longest-running medical drama Casualty - looks at the MPs who moulded modern Britain and what it cost them in this new drama. Gary Shipton was in the audience at The Minerva Theatre Chichester to give his diagnosis.

They say history repeats itself. If so, this take on the Labour Government in 1945 does not necessarily bode well for the current administration eighty years later.

After a period of coalition government in the national interest led by Conservative Winston Churchill, Clement Attlee and his Labour administration swept to power with a landslide that no-one – least of all them – saw coming.

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They inherited a Britain that was financially bankrupt, that was exhausted from the chaos of the previous five years, and on a promise of ‘change’ – full employment, affordable housing, and social security and free health care for all.

The Promise at The Minerva Theatre, Chichester. Photo: Helen MurrayThe Promise at The Minerva Theatre, Chichester. Photo: Helen Murray
The Promise at The Minerva Theatre, Chichester. Photo: Helen Murray

The Tory’s campaign of lowering taxes and maintaining defence spending never cut through.

But Paul Unwin’s new play – planned before the latest general election result – shows how difficult delivering that change was in practice. There was no money. The medical establishment had no appetite to be privatised. The cabinet itself was riven with internal dissent and to some extent ill health.

Worse, they never quite came to terms with their right to rule – forever in the shadow and to some degree in awe of Winston Churchill.

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The Minerva has a good reputation for delivering these portraits of key political events. Less than a year ago The Inquiry gave a brutal insight into the machinations of government.

This production shines a light on decisions that were to lay the foundations for every political debate since – the welfare state, the NHS, and how to fund it without raising taxes.

There are some sharp, poignant character assessments too – not least Clare Burt’s incisive depiction of Red Ellen Wilkinson, whose untimely death plays a central role.

Unwin does not shy away from the trade-offs – referencing the alleged value of family GP practices and of treating every patient as a unique individual against a free for all, one size fits all bureaucracy-filled alternative. Nor was the NHS founding father Aneurin Bevan’s vision delivered in tact. Harley Street and the pharmaceutical giants retained their independence and their profits.

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Despite this post war government’s historic welfare and medical achievements, five years on and the public craved less change. Their landslide evaporated to a majority of just a few seats in 1950 and a year later Winston Churchill and the Conservatives returned to power on the back of tax cuts.

So in celebrating arguably Labour’s finest hour – warts and all – there is a red flag too that the public is not immune to changing its mind on the need for change.

TV’s Casualty has always had the ability to dissect its key characters within the context of the politics of the medical profession. While not set on the hospital ward, these skills remain on full display here in a play that is so full of promise and of promises.

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