Lovers of provocative theatre, and anyone with an interest in race issues, ‘othering’, populism, the NHS or hobnobs, needs to check in when ‘Drip Drip Drip’ comes to Theatr Brycheiniog in Brecon on Saturday, March 23.
Pipeline Theatre’s new play is about a disgraced academic, an alt-right provocateur, an anti-Islamist, an anti-immigrant, a racist… who’s also terminally ill, and finding himself treated by an ethnically diverse care team. In an anonymous lecture hall, a disgraced academic ‘race scientist’ gives a secret talk about a hero of his – a Nazi euthanasia doctor, hanged at Nuremberg.
Confusingly for him, at the very same time, in a cancer ward in an overstretched district general hospital, a bewildered trainee nurse from Eritrea, a newly arrived Muslim doctor, a demoralised consultant and a stressed-out ops manager are trying their best to look after him through the final stages of his illness.
As life ebbs, reality splinters, jumping in time and location between the Third Reich euthanasia programme, a burns clinic in rural Africa, and the 1977 ‘Battle of Lewisham’ National Front march.
But the most pressing reality of all is that Professor David Jeffs has a speech to finish, and time is running out.
To make the play, Pipeline Theatre has collaborated with an array of medical experts, academics and healthcare workers. According to one: “In some areas, the NHS is a working model of British Colonialism.” Discuss.
Artistic co-director and writer for Pipeline, Jon Welch, is disturbed by our capacity on both sides of binary debates to dehumanise our opponents: “Brexit, Trump, walls, immigration, it all comes down to emotion, to tribes. How easy it is to signal one’s loyalties through the 360-degrees trumpet-cacophony of social media.
But when we actually come face-to-face with the ‘other’, what happens when a human being is revealed? Particularly when, as in hospital, the stakes are so high.”
Pipeline Theatre is based in Cornwall, and creates text-based drama with high-end design. ‘Drip Drip Drip’ is the company’s sixth show. Their previous productions ‘Transports’, ’Streaming’ and ‘Spillikin’ all toured nationally garnering five and four star reviews everywhere, whilst ‘Swivelhead’ showcased in Edinburgh to similar critical acclaim.
Their recent community play ‘The Angels of Fore Street’ sold out in their native Cornwall.