It is clear from the office, strewn with piles of case histories, that this NHS unit for young mental health outpatients is overwhelmed and under-resourced.
The paperwork represents referrals, some completely forgotten, on an unfeasibly long waiting list. The admin staff juggling it are Angela (Debra Baker), queen of this white-collar realm who has been doing the job for 30 years, and Jay (Denzel Baidoo), the new temp, training to become an occupational therapist and determined to shake things up.
Directed by Ed Madden and written by Sophia Chetin-Leuner, the production is immediately intriguing as these chalk and cheese colleagues brush up against each other amusingly, before things get tense. Like Georgina Burns’ 2022 play Ravenscourt, which also dramatised a mental health unit under strain, there is a clash of personalities and generations. Angela is entrenched in her analogue way of doing things while Jay brings a bushy-tailed conviction that he can change the system for the better. Baidoo and Baker are adept at slipping between the comic naturalism of office life and the agitation buzzing beneath its surface.
The tiered office, designed by Alys Whitehead, looks little bigger than a cupboard and has a bland uniformity with edges of an Alice in Wonderland claustrophobia: characters almost have to duck to get in, and the space is so tight that nothing can stay private.
However, the play slightly suffers from its own overburdening themes. There is the power play between Jay and Angela alongside an exploration of what excessive work does to those in the care industry. There are also glimpses into the life of young carers like Jay with a subplot around his ill mother. Another plotline develops between patient Beth (Dolly Webb) and Jay, which contains ethical issues on boundaries. None of these elements are pursued quite enough in under 90 minutes.
It stays immensely engaging nonetheless and even if the play bites off more than it can chew, its promise shines through.
At the Bush theatre, London, until 7 March
