Find out what is being said about Tim Price’s play starring Michael Sheen with our review round up…
The Guardian: *** “In a production written by Tim Price and directed by Rufus Norris, there is some inspired stagecraft as the hospital curtains of Vicki Mortimer’s ingenious set swish to reveal debating chambers and libraries. But the narrative is too long-reaching and schematic, its extensively researched material not fully absorbed dramatically.”
Time Out: *** “However, if the whole isn’t quite there, most of the individual scenes are scintillating. And there’s no sense of embarrassment from Sheen, who is magnetic as Bevan – a decent, even slightly bewildered man, who nonetheless feels pathologically drawn to doing the right thing, no matter the odds.”
The Telegraph: **** “Michael Sheen is in his element as NHS founder Aneurin Bevan, in Tim Price’s rousing new drama.”
London Theatre.co.uk: *** “Ultimately, though, this creative production can’t disguise the verbosity and breathless sprint to the finish that is Price’s overstuffed, surface-level script, even if elements of it are searingly relevant – like a ludicrous Tory budget delivered by men brought up in a cocoon of privilege, or a grossly unfair hospital postcode lottery. Sketchy characterisation means we hear the arguments but don’t necessarily feel them.”
Evening Standard: *** “But it’s also about one remarkable man. Tim Price may not have written the most subtle version of Nye, but Sheen fills him with zest.”
The Independent : *** “It’s a bit of a tired theatrical set-up, to have an ageing famous figure reliving his life in convenient vignettes. But although the text periodically sags, Norris’s direction keeps things nimble and strange.”
Broadway World: **** “Michael Sheen, in the part he was surely born to play, is on stage throughout, carrying the play and the man with equal passion. We see the charisma, the dynamism and bloody-mindedness that Clement Attlee (Stephanie Jacob) saw when he gave him the toughest job in his Cabinet. We also see the sentimentality, the performative working class chippiness and a laudable, perhaps guilty, pragmatism eventually poking through. Sheen catches Nye’s lightning in a bottle.”
WhatsOnStage: *** “But Sheen’s Nye holds the centre. He potters through the action in his red pyjamas and overly-combed hair, looking like a portly prophet, inspiring by the power of his belief. It’s a nuanced performance that finds the sense of inferiority lying behind the confident exterior, but also the emotion that propelled Bevan forward.”
London Unattached: “This is the National Theatre at its best – a big production on a big stage, telling a big story about an issue that continues to affect the nation. With the NHS now in a state of near collapse, it is sobering to look back on the history of how our health service came to life. The post-war era of hope and building institutions to protect the poor and the vulnerable in society seems to belong to the distant past. This is a play that is both educational and packs a political message. All politicians should see it. When the audience rose to its feet to applaud the cast it felt that we were clapping also for the NHS.”
The Reviews Hub: *** 1/2 “Nye is not a political play calling out today’s government for its mishandling of the most recent pay disputes. Instead, Nye is steeped in nostalgia for a time when it seemed we really did want to care for everyone.”
The Arts Dispatch: **** “Sheen, on stage throughout is clearly the star – full of passion but with an impish quality to his every interaction, you get the sense of a man filled with desire to do good for the right reasons. He also brings Bevan’s sense of his bewilderment at each hallucinatory interaction, balancing how the past Bevan interacted with the scenario with how the older Bevan is now viewing from the future – no mean feat. Other performances across the large ensemble are constrained by the format, with each actor playing multiple roles and only a couple of characters who exist for more than a handful of scenes.”
Nye continues to play at the National Theatre until the 11th May 2024.