Tiger Country, Hampstead Theatre

Nina Raine’s incendiary examination of the NHS and its staff returns to the Hampstead for an exciting second run.

A cast of fifteen actors recreate the speed and mania of a working hospital in Tiger Country , which was originally commissioned by the Hampstead in 2011. We are given glimpses into the lives of urologists, surgeons, heart specialists and the patients themselves with often gasp-inducing detail. The story is driven by two women— perfectionist new arrival, Emily, and world-weary, prickly Vashti. The sheer number of people onstage at any one time depicts the strain upon the health service. As a character laments, “there isn’t enough NHS.” 

Tiger Country perfectly complements the Hampstead’s other main stage show Wildefire, which also delves into the lives of emergency service staff. Nina Raine writes and directs her play, which resembles a television hospital drama with its fast pace and endless life-threatening circumstances. It is a compassionate and well-researched account of human beings saving lives. During her time spent at hospitals across south England, Raine found the possibilities for plot-lines infinite. “Far too many stories to put into one play. It’s a really rich field emotionally.”

Raine’s play Tribes at the Royal Court in 2010 was a runaway success about a deaf son in a Jewish family. She originally arrived at the theatre fresh out of Oxford University to train as a director and was then lauded with a Theatre Award for Best Director in 2006. Her debut play Rabbit (a character from which reappears in Tiger Country) earned her an Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright. And she has more than lived up to audiences’ expectations. Of Tribes, one reviewer wrote: “It's the best-written, best-plotted, deepest, most daring—and funniest—new play in recent years.”

“It’s me trying to show the doctors’ point of view,” says Raine of her play’s revival, “I’m not trying to do a hatchet job. I’m trying to say, ‘This is what it’s like from the other side.” You can expect a thrilling mix of life-and-death drama, staff romances, and political rancour on the Hampstead’s main stage this winter.