LIFELINE

Southwark Playhouse Elephant

★★½

“has real ambition and compelling music but the theatrical execution isn’t quite there yet

‘Lifeline’ – the first musical ever staged at the UN – premieres in London with an urgent mission: to spotlight the growing threat of antibiotic resistance and critical need for responsible stewardship. However, the delivery feels a little blunt, leaning on shock tactics and healthcare hero tropes, and at times muddling its own call to action. Still, it offers flashes of real enjoyment.

Resident doctor Jess is thrown off course when her ex, musician Aaron, is rushed in for emergency surgery. As his condition worsens, Sir Alexander Fleming battles his demons as penicillin reshapes the world. Their stories collide under the spectre of antibiotic resistance – and whether Aaron, and countless others, can still be saved.

Becky Hope Palmer’s book would benefit from sharpening its key messages and character arcs. Using dual love stories to humanise the science is strong, but the balance is off: Jess and Aaron’s fraught history resolves too early, while Fleming’s thinner arc stretches on without much development. The dual timelines don’t always flow either, leaving their climactic convergence feeling underpowered. Stronger character shaping would also help moments like Layla’s big scene land with more impact. It also feels unfocused as a piece of social action, raising many issues but ultimately offering healthcare workers as the solution and sidelining the simple actions individuals can take. This perhaps offers more anxiety than hope, and undermines the piece’s intent.

Robin Hiley’s beautifully intricate, Scottish folk inflected music is the show’s great strength – lively rhythms and warm harmonies all delivered with flair by Neil Metcalfe and the six piece band. The military ceilidh is a genuine high point. However, Hiley’s lyrics don’t always land, feeling a little repetitive and clunky at times, with lots of counterpoint that loses detail.

Alex Howarth’s direction shows ambition but doesn’t always bring the characters or relationships into focus. The split screen climax is striking, though Aaron’s arc feels sidelined by then. A few choices jar, such as Fleming’s Act 1 press conference, overwhelmed by sound and light, and the frequent clambering over the set, which feels dynamic but sometimes unnecessary.

Leanne Pinder’s choreography is pitched to suit mixed abilities, but the reliance on sharp, spiky arm movements doesn’t always suit the moment. The larger ceilidh sequences are a real lift, energising the whole stage.

Abby Clarke’s set is striking but busy, filled with grids that don’t seem to carry deeper meaning. Paul Smith’s sound design hasn’t quite found its balance, with a few overpowering moments and some lost lyrics. Alice McNicholas’ costumes are attractive and accurate, though I’m not sure all of Amalia’s changes are necessary within her jumping timelines. Matthew Craigen’s lighting, however, is beautifully judged and consistently lifts key moments.

Nathan Salstone’s Aaron/Clowes is the standout of the night, with nuanced acting, gorgeous vocals, and impressive guitar work. Kelly Glyptis’ Amalia also shines, with a fluid operatic voice, razor sharp comic timing, and a welcome dose of fiery directness. Maz McGinlay’s Jess delivers solid acting and strong vocals throughout, with a knockout top note. Alan Vicary’s Fleming offers assured singing, though the characterisation feels underpowered.

The healthcare professional ensemble brings plenty of spirit and strong vocals, but their acting and movement feels amateur and can be a little distracting. The intention to honour the profession is clear but this could be achieved without compromising performance quality.

‘Lifeline’ has real ambition and compelling music but the theatrical execution isn’t quite there yet. With sharper focus and delivery, it could become the impactful piece of social change theatre it’s reaching for.

LIFELINE

Southwark Playhouse Elephant

Reviewed on 2nd April 2026

by Hannah Bothelton

Photography by Charlie Flint

LIFELINE

★★★★

“entertaining and thought provoking”

Tron Theatre’s latest offering Black Hole Sign, a co-production with Traverse Theatre Company and in association with National Theatre of Scotland, is a gripping and necessary reflection of the current state of our National Health Service. Written by Uma Nada-Rajah, a practicing nurse in critical care with NHS Scotland, and directed by Gareth Nicholls, the show offers a powerful show of Scottish humour which offers levity from its bleak message.

The show is split along two timelines, at once following the events of a night on an NHS nursing ward while also giving us glimpses to a tribunal happening in the future. The titular Black Hole Sign, a radiological marker seen on a CT scan of the brain, rears its head as a diagnosis early in the show while at the same time, in a stunning parallel, we see a literal hole in the ceiling which will prove a challenge to the workers throughout the night. Alongside an array of colourful characters, the show details the journey of the two main nurses on call that evening in the understaffed ward and we watch on with a sense of foreboding as things begin to inevitably go wrong for the pair and their patients.

The set design (Anna Orton) offers a naturalistic representation of an NHS nursing ward which serves the piece beautifully. It is adaptable though, and during a delightful hallucinatory sequence in which the charmingly grumpy Mr Turnbull (Martin Docherty) is accidentally given nebulised ketamine, the set allows for the striking fantasies to take hold. The lighting (Lizzie Powell) is suitably stark for the setting with excellent clarity for the moments in which we are transported to the future tribunal. The sound design for the piece (Michael John McCarthy) was effective in providing an uncomfortable and tense underscore for what was to come, but the sung compositions seemed out of place.

The acting was superb across the board, with heart and humour shining through in equal measures. Helen Logan delivered a supreme performance as the powerful but flawed senior charge nurse Crea, a woman whose professional ethos ‘service delivered to people based on medical need, and no other criteria’ runs deep in everything she does. Betty Valencia as student nurse Lina was a lovely contrast to the rest of the ensemble and managed to both endear and frustrate the audience with her charm and ineptitude. The cast excelled in their multi-roling, making the stage feel twice as full with rounded and nuanced characters.

For all this show excels in its design and performances, it misses the punch slightly on the lasting impact for the audience. With grand lines such as ‘from the ashes of war they dreamt up a new Jerusalem: the National Health Service’, one expects the show to rouse the troops a little more in its final moments. Additionally, the show sets up very early a sense that something bad is going to happen. This makes the audience wait on tenterhooks throughout the performance as we try and get ahead of the script to guess the final big twist. I personally quite liked this element, it made the whole show feel like a murder mystery game with me, the sleuth detective, sitting in my seat thinking I’d be able to work the thing out before the actors. But those games are fun because of how far removed they are from reality. I wonder if this element of playful suspense downplayed the heartbreak in the not-so-far-from-real-life ending we were presented with.

Overall Black Hole Sign offers an entertaining and thought provoking night out, with top class performances and a strong message. It might not revolutionize the country and the health service on its own, but it certainly leaves audiences mulling what might be done to protect such a vital organ of our country.

Tag Archives: Helen Logan

LIFELINE

★★½

Southwark Playhouse Elephant

LIFELINE

Southwark Playhouse Elephant

★★½

“has real ambition and compelling music but the theatrical execution isn’t quite there yet