Nye at the National Theatre: 'Michael Sheen shines'

Michael Sheen (Aneurin Bevan) and the cast of Nye at the National Theatre - (Johan Persson)

Michael Sheen shines as the firebrand Welsh founder of the NHS Aneurin ‘Nye’ Bevan in Tim Price’s bouncy 2024 hagiography, revived by its director Rufus Norris as one of the productions marking the end of his ten years running the National. You can see why he brought it back: this is a big but eloquently simple piece of populist theatre, with a star leading a fine ensemble, exploring one of the creation stories of modern Britain.

But the play remains irksomely lumpy: sentimental one minute, overloaded with details on council proceedings in 1920s Tredegar the next. It unfolds in flashback, as Nye lies dying in 1960 in one of the NHS wards he brought into being. Price makes Nye’s motivation painfully obvious, from guilt over his miner father’s death from black lung to blazing anger at the wily Winston Churchill’s incompetent or self-serving wartime policies. A lifelong stutter spurred Nye on to become an autodidact and an orator, we gather.