The National Theatre has debuted their striking new bio drama, Nye, starring ‘Good Omens’ lead Michael Sheen as NHS founder Aneurin Bevan.

 

Nye follows a dying Bevan as a patient in a hospital as he relives his life whilst unconscious, slipping through time. Playwright Tim Price crafts a nuanced and highly commendable representation of Bevan as a flawed but hardworking Welshman, as the audience follows his consciousness across his hardships growing up with a speech impediment to his political career.

 

Bevans career was given a ‘whistle-stop-tour’ of sorts, earning a seat on the Tredegar Monmouthshire County Council, his ascent to Labour MP for Welsh constituency Ebbw Vale, and his eventual appointment by PM Clement Attlee (Stephanie Jacob) as Minister for Health and Housing. A testament to the work of the politician, Nye offers a refined look into the workings of during and post WW2 Westminster Parliament. 

 

Director Rufus Norris crafts a brilliant stage show, shadows lurching up and across the curtained walls, metallic hospital sounds and machinery serving as the crux of the story. Absurdist elements present themselves throughout, large alien green projected lungs rasping out at intervals of past and present serving to remind the audience that we are just rendezvousing in a memory, Sheen still in his hospital pyjamas. 

 

The most hard-hitting scenes can be said to be when navigating the personal life of Bevan, his wife Jennie Lee (Sharon Small) sharing emotional insights about her struggles with fertility, and Nye accompanying his late father’s apparition to the coal mines where he worked and ultimately became ill with black lung. Sheen does a heartfelt and expressive portrayal of one of the UK’s most admired historical figures, fuelling his adaptation of Bevan by a pathological need to help his communities. 

 

To summarise, Nye gives a valid and compelling account of the life of Aneurin Bevan with a fantastical yet honest take on his period of history. The stage show is brilliantly executed as a bio drama and is worth seeing while you can until its descent on the 11th May 2024.