Review: CARE at the Young Vic

In writer/director Alexander Zeldin's CARE which has begun a run at the Young Vic, we find harried daughter Lynn (Rosie Cavaliero) visiting her mother Joan (Linda Bassett) at a care facility while simultaneously dealing with elder son Laurie (William Lawlor, who has gone off the rails since his father died) and her younger crisp-munching boy Robbie (Charlie Webb on the evening I saw the production but the part is also played by Ethan Mahoney during the run) who is being bullied but doesn't want to talk about it.

As we are gradually introduced to various staff members and residents, it becomes clear that Joan believes this situation to be temporary. She has already decided that she doesn't like the place and is ready to leave after one night. Skittish inmate Simone (Hayley Carmichael) keeps up a nice line in anti-establishment disruption (a la Randle P McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) veering from deranged lasciviousness to frail desperation at her incarceration. Hazel (Llewella Gideon) as the nurse responsible for providing care and keeping order, manages her charges with a mix of extreme patience, genuine love, and professional skill. It 's the sort of role which should give every one of us, renewed respect and admiration for the nursing profession and those who commit their lives to it.

Others who display the husks of lives lived but largely forgotten, include businessman John (Richard Durden) whose faltering rendition of Some Enchanted Evening from South Pacific and a diaper-clad hug with Joan, are both heartbreaking moments in a play which lurches from frustration and impatience, through blunt hilarity, to gut-wrenching poignancy. Later, after a black-out in which the facility's open plan communal area converts to a bedroom, we watch transfixed as Joan's resignation and gratitude are facially expressed while Hazel gently executes a refreshing and cleansing bed bath in real time — a scene which must surely be repeated on millions of occasions at hospitals and care facilities every day. There is a reverence, almost an embalmer's respect, during this intimate moment which audibly elicited sobs among the audience.

Credit must also go to the excellent work executed by the crew, who during Rosanna Vize's final stage design transition, demonstrate the behind-the-scenes sequence required to magically transform the set, in readiness to realise the final explosive showdown between mother and sons at their home following Joan 's cremation.

The Young Vic's production of CARE has a running time of 2 hours and 10 minutes played straight through (without interval) and is scheduled to continue until 11^th July.

CARE Tickets