ANDY HEDGECOCK is entertained by a playful novel that embeds a fictional game at its heart
Get Well Soon
Wetherby Whaler, Guiseley/Touring
“WHAT'S the NHS ever done for us?” asks a character at the start of Get Well Soon.
The answer, referencing Monty Python’s sketch about the Romans, is everything from heart transplants, test-tube babies, Aids awareness campaigns and a slot at the London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony.
That roll call of achievements is celebrated in Ged Cooper’s cautionary tale for Mikron Theatre, coinciding with the service’s 70th anniversary. Whether it will survive to see its next milestone birthday is never far from the surface of this gently comedic yet pointed piece of theatre with music.
KEN COCKBURN guides us through a survey of Chekov’s early short fiction, and the groundwork it laid for his later masterpieces
Building is the solution for much of our housing crisis – and will also help to address poverty, ill health, and even anti-social behaviour and alienation, writes KENNY MacASKILL
SUSAN DARLINGTON is bowled over by an outstanding play about the past, present and future of race and identity in the US



