He lives, he dies, he even sings and dances
The welcome return of Tim Price’s Nye opens with Aneurin Bevan dying, we see the heart monitor as a projected backdrop looking close to flatlining. His life ticks away in beeps, writes Michael Holland.
The privacy curtains are rolled away to reveal Nye Bevan (Michael Sheen) recovering from a long operation, around his bed the halcyon days of the early NHS, with fully-staffed wards. His wife, Jennie Lee (Sharon Small), a trailblazing politician in her own right, does not want to tell him that the doctors say his days are numbered.
Michael Sheen is one of the nicest men in his industry so it is fitting that he gets to play his fellow Welshman, the working-class hero who spearheaded the creation of the National Health Service in Clement Atlee’s post-war Labour Government.
We flashback to Nye’s schooldays in Tredegar, where the fathers were miners and the sons followed them down the pit. He was mocked for his stutter by a spiteful teacher and nasty school kids, but eventually devised a strategy for getting around the ‘trigger’ words by using alternatives found in library books – A device that widened his vocabulary and made his speeches that much better when the time came.
We see his anger at how the coal company owned the pits and the houses and the shops – ultimately owning the people. His oratory skills came to their notice and he was sacked and blacklisted, his whole life was ripped away, spurring him on to take on the authorities and take charge of the council himself along with other blacklisted men.
Nye’s political career had begun and we are swept through some of his greatest hits: berating Churchill during wartime; constantly calling out Tories and Capitalism in ways that shocked the recipients of his ferocity but would not look out of place in a pit village pub.
Between each return to the past where we see how Bevan became the man he was, we come back to the hospital where he and his wife look back at their lives together. As his life ebbs away, we get a picture of his achievements, how he will be remembered for the institution that every one of us has benefitted from.
Michael Sheen is tremendous in this play. He lives, he dies, he even sings and dances, but most of all he once again proves what a great actor he is.
The Olivier Theatre, National Theatre, South Bank, London, SE1 9PX until 16th August.
Booking and full details: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/productions/nye/
