Play review: 'Tending', Riverside Studios
Critically acclaimed at Edinburgh Fringe 2023, ‘Tending’ is an urgently eye-opening and timely play about the experiences of NHS nurses. Written by El Blackwood, who also co-stars alongside actors Ben Lynn and Mara Allen, it is a verbatim enactment of interviews with over seventy nurses, conducted over a two-year period.
On the stage are three chairs, and three actors in matching blue scrubs, but the minimalist set is instantly transformed by the absorbing narrative and skill of the acting, totally immersing the audience into its world. We are taken with them on the exhausting night shifts, during the nursing strikes, and in the ICU during the chaos of the first wave of Covid. We hear about the individual decisions to go into nursing, and from those who choose to leave, as well as those who commit themselves unconditionally to the profession. Throughout the performance, we learn of people’s favourite nursing memories, alongside the most painful.
‘Tending’ powerfully bursts any bubble many people may have of nursing. One of the actors refers to a common illusion of nurses being “unbreakable”, but across the sixty-minute runtime, we experience the gruelling reality of individuals being pushed to the brink. We learn about the physical exhaustion from the long shifts, and the burnout and despair at what can often feel like trying to fix a broken system. There are also devastating recollections of mental health patients, and the helplessness at trying to save people who don’t want to live anymore.
What could have easily been an angry play about the lack of funding and support (politicians should definitely be shown this), instead presents an honest and raw experience of those on the health service frontline. With love and compassion, ‘Tending’ addresses both the pressure and honour of being responsible for another person's life, and the simultaneous pain and reward that the job can bring. The actors convey incredibly moving depictions of the tenderness with which the nurses treat their patients, revealing the driving force behind the job: “nursing when it’s good is love. It’s loving strangers”.
The play is an emotional watch, and the heartbreakingly sad anecdotes left me stifling a sob throughout. However, it is ultimately a love for the profession that shines through the unrelenting darkness, and the level of care not just for the patients, but between colleagues who are all going through it together, is incredibly moving. One of the actors relays how a team of nurses would start their shift by putting on a song and all dancing to it together, which we see play out on stage to Sia’s ‘Titanium’. The moment is one of laughter and catharsis, allowing a welcome relief of joy amongst the pain; two emotions that appear inextricably linked within the profession.
As an Outpatients Healthcare Assistant, I cannot claim to understand life as a nurse. But I am privileged to work alongside wonderful nurses on a daily basis, and I have a newfound level of admiration and respect for the noble and selfless work that they do. It is a truly admirable and often under-appreciated profession. El Blackwood creatively pays a loving tribute to nurses by giving them a collective voice, and her play has reaffirmed my sense of pride in working within the NHS. I would urge everyone to see it.
‘Tending’ is showing at Riverside Studios until 4th May 2025.
