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).

Dr Elcock is a housewife, GP, alderwoman and healthcare activist who spends her busy days cooking, cleaning, curing patients, helping her boss in parliament, handling council business and attending drinks parties with her sozzled spouse. Yet she also finds time to stalk a dashing film star, George (Jack Davenport), whom she adores for obscure reasons.