
As dry as a ghost’s burp: Donmar Warehouse’s The Human Body reviewed
Set in 1948, The Human Body is about four heroic women fighting to create the NHS despite opposition from right-wing extremists led by the ‘snob’ and ‘warmonger’ Winston Churchill. One of these heroic women is a Labour councillor, another is a physician on a bike, the third works at Westminster for a socialist MP and the fourth is a hard-working mother married to a violent drunk. What’s odd about Lucy Kirkwood’s new play is that these four women co-exist within a single figure: Dr Elcock (Keeley Hawes). Bob Geldof was the Greta Thunberg of his day, a whingeing, sanctimonious diva Dr Elcock is a housewife, GP, alderwoman and healthcare activist
