After the Cuts
Oran Mor, Glasgow
Mary Brennan Three Stars
There’s a wintry nip in the air. Coughs seem more problematic now– best ask the doctor. Go on! It’s 2015 and NHS care is still free at the point of access. Fast forward to 2045. Aggie (Maureen Carr) needs extensive medical attention, but she and husband Jim (George Docherty) can’t afford the privatised care. The insurance cover that doesn’t pay out, has already caused Aggie to vent angry expletives. A lifetime of hard work and paying dues has come to nothing: they’re too poor to keep her alive. So Jim decides to take life and death matters into his own hands...
If Jim risks failure because he can’t stand by and do nothing, then the same could be said of writer Gary McNair. His two-hander (supportively directed by Beth Morton) risks missing its mark – namely nailing the harrowing impact of NHS cuts on the needy poor and elderly – by making the stuff of Aggie and Jim’s predicament into a mischievously guignol fantasy-cum-farce. Without giving too much away, Jim’s solution is rooted in his tendency towards practicality. Even after a lifetime of marriage, he’s not one for romantic speeches or gestures – but fixing the vacuum cleaner, tidying the house, making Aggie a cup of tea... This is the genuine essence of Jim’s shining love for his "real Govan lady" with her heart of gold and filthy mouth – Aggie surely can let rip with the swear words!
If the plot-line has the comedic gloss of a sit-com caper, the quiet desperation of Jim’s ‘I can fix it’ mantra as he attempts to engineer Aggie’s recovery is where McNair’s outrage at the politics of NHS provision really finds its fiercest voice. Both Docherty and Carr ensure we hear it loud and movingly clear.
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