The Language of Kindness – Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry

Writer: Christie Watson

Adaptation and Direction: Sasha Milavic Davies and James Yeatman

Christie Watson is an award-winning writer with two novels under her belt. However, before turning to writing she had been a paediatric nurse in a career spanning twenty years in the NHS that culminated in her becoming a resuscitation officer, including teaching as well as clinical work. In 2018, her first memoir, The Language of Kindness, was published to considerable acclaim and it provides the basis for this stage adaptation from Wayward Productions.

The gestation period of the piece has been long having been interrupted by the pandemic; although the play is not explicitly about the impact of the pandemic on nursing and the NHS, it has had an impact on the design and execution of the whole piece. Nursing, and being nursed, are tactile experiences, yet the members of the ensemble cast never touch and are rarely close together. This is quite a constraint on directors Sasha Milavic Davies and James Yeatman but the result includes carefully choreographed movement that evokes the bustle of a modern hospital, together with some ingenious devices.

We watch the journey of a nurse from being gauche, awkward and eager to please to one growing in confidence and revelling in the successes, for example, in delivering babies, or knowing just how to reassure a child receiving a lumbar puncture. Indeed, the whole focus is on the role of nurses – it is they, not the doctors, who are the constant in patients’ lives. And this is no saccharine portrayal – the company shows us the less pleasant aspects of dealing with the human body as well as the teamwork required to try desperately to save a life, even when it feels hopeless. The whole is told in a series of apparently disconnected vignettes mirroring the unpredictability of shifts, some with frantic activity, others showing the more routine, though still powerful and compassionate, aspects as patients are cared for, minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour. And while some of the vignettes maybe outstay their welcome a touch, maybe this also reflects the nurse’s experience – caring never stops, it’s a never-ending treadmill throughout long shifts.

There’s good use made of the often-visceral soundscape of Gareth Fry, which also includes what sound like verbatim accounts of life on the ward, supported by video projections designed by Hayley Egan. A minimalist set from Zoë Hurwitz transforms into curtained off treatment areas as necessary; however, these can interfere with sightlines for those not seated centrally in the auditorium.

The direction of Milavic Davies and Yeatman ensures that at the centre are the performances of the ensemble cast, by turns physical and thoughtful, always engaging, bringing out the highs and lows of life as nurses.

Overall, The Language of Kindness serves to encapsulate the work of nurses, whose work too often goes unremarked and is a worthy tribute to their work and sacrifices.

Runs until 22 May 2021 and on tour