Dr Juliet’s medical moral maze
The Doctor (Almeida, London) Verdict: Strong medicine ★★★★✩
JULIET STEVENSON is the kind of physician who answers the question ‘is she going to die?’ with a scoff and a dry: ‘Aren’t we all?’ not what you necessarily want to hear in intensive care. As the titular doctor, Stevenson is hard as nails: a grammatical pedant, a fierce defender of her profession and, in this new piece by robert icke, up to her neck in a medical ethics and public relations scandal. Spoiler alert: the patient dies. A witch-hunt ensues because The Doctor prevented a priest from administering the last rites. The fury blooms beautifully into a full fiery kerfuffle over identity politics, sexism and anti-Semitism. ‘Should a Catholic patient have a Catholic doctor?’ we’re asked again and again. Stevenson is a mighty presence. She rages, shakes, admonishes, weeps. There’s real fire behind her eyes, stoked by the drama playing out. Slowly her life is filled in with tales of grief endured and hurdles overcome. it’s worth seeing just for her. it’s a shame, then, that most of the rest of the cast are a bit flat. Her mad passion is matched only by Paul Higgins, who, as the frustrated priest and later the grieving father, is on sizzling form. ria Zmitrowicz, too, is very watchable as a confused teen who makes the sagest observations. The play sometimes feels like a TV debate. That’s not helped in the second half where it does turn into a TV show: a cross between moral maze and Kilroy. So where before the cast was race, age and gender-blind (a short woman introduces herself as roger; a black woman refers to herself as white), suddenly everyone is as they appear, and must defend themselves against charges of being ‘unwoke’ or ‘unconsciously biased’. A charming wit helps here: there are jokes about insurance and the present participle. Yes, it’s baggy (three hours) and bleak. But i was still hooked.
BAZ BAMIGBOYE IS AWAY