Skip to main content
Theatrical health warning
This May Hurt is an unashamedly partisan call to arms in defence of the NHS, says PAUL FOLEY

This May Hurt A Bit
Octagon Theatre, Bolton
4/5

There is a touch of nostalgia about Stella Feehily’s new play about the NHS, not for a golden era of the health service but a reminder of the powerful agit-prop theatre of the 1970s.

In that time, companies like 7:84 and Red Ladder were performing overtly political theatre in response to the reactionary policies of right-wing governments.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
price
Theatre review / 28 April 2026
28 April 2026

MARY CONWAY applauds the timely revival of Miller’s study of people fatally deformed by the economics of survival

arcadia
Theatre Review / 11 February 2026
11 February 2026

MARY CONWAY becomes impatient with the intellectual self-indulgence of Tom Stoppard in a production that is, nevertheless, total class

spy who
Theatre Review / 7 January 2026
7 January 2026

PETER MASON applauds a stage version of Le Carre’s novel that questions what ordinary people have to gain from high-level governmental spying