The Human Body
Cast: 4f 2m with suggested doubling (over 35 roles in total)
Staging: Multiple locations (can be simply staged)
Amateur rights performance fee: £85 per performance (plus VAT where applicable)
29 Feb 2024Size: 198mm x 129mm
29 Feb 2024
The Human Body
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1948, Shropshire: the winter is freezing, austerity is biting and Iris Elcock, GP, socialist and Labour Party councillor, is working tirelessly to implement Nye Bevan's National Health Service Act and its revolutionary promise of free healthcare for all.
At home she is a mother, and wife to a fellow GP, an ex-Navy man scarred by the war. But a chance meeting with George Blythe, a local boy who has made it to Hollywood, turns her quiet, certain world upside down.
A story of political and private passions, Lucy Kirkwood's play The Human Body was first performed at the Donmar Warehouse, London, in 2024, directed by Michael Longhurst and Ann Yee, and starring Keeley Hawes and Jack Davenport.
'Kirkwood is the most rewarding dramatist of her generation' Independent
'The window for change – real change I mean – will close. It's already closing. Very soon it will be shut, and we shan't be able to get it open again.'
'A fabulously rich piece of writing'
Independent'Kirkwood's script crackles with unspoken desires, disappointments, yearning and some fantastic humour... deftly weaves bigger politics with the politics of a marriage and affair'
Guardian'Delicate and poignant... has its author's characteristic intelligence and wit, the dialogue crammed with texture and vivacity'
The Stage'Vivid and engrossing... Kirkwood is such a wonderful writer'
WhatsOnStage'The golden age of cinema meets theatre in this thoroughly enjoyable play, sprinkled with cracking comedic one-liners'
Theatre Weekly'A terrific, grown-up and engrossing history play full of Coward-esque dry wit'
TheatreCat'Glorious... an engrossing romance... a theatre-cinema hybrid that blends post-war Hollywood glamour with the British political landscape... a celebration of the founding principles of the NHS and those who campaigned to make it happen... great emotional impact'
Reviews Hub'Potent... blazes with emotion'
iNews'Thrilling... poignant and surprising... Kirkwood crafts a complicated protagonist who's stuck being a woman while her ambition beckons her... compelling and thoroughly riveting'
Broadway World'Ambitious, intelligent and frequently funny... scalpel-sharp'
London Theatre'Pure theatrical magic... mesmerising and moving... I loved every single thing about this gorgeous show... The Human Body is everything I want theatre to be and more'
All That DazzlesCast: 4f 2m with suggested doubling (over 35 roles in total)
Staging:Multiple locations (can be simply staged)
Amateur rights performance fee: £85 per performance (plus VAT where applicable)
29 Feb 2024Size: 198mm x 129mm
29 Feb 2024
