REVIEW | This Might Not Be It, Bush Theatre

Reviews

6 Feb

Written by Bronagh

*Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in return for an honest review

The audience enters the Studio space at the Bush Theatre and walks straight into a messy office. Piles of paperwork – referrals mostly - take up much of the floorspace - some standard and some urgent, some new and some referring to Y2K anxiety. There are two desks facing away from one another and this is where we meet Angela (Debra Baker), a long-standing admin assistant and Jay (Denzel Baidoo), a keen temp with some ideas up his sleeve.

It is no secret that mental health services are suffering enormously. Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), where This Might Not Be It is set, is no different. Writer Sophia Chetin-Leuner captures this perfectly throughout, showing the crumbling service and those, such as 17-year-old Beth (Dolly Webb), who is in danger of slipping through the cracks. Chetin-Leuner’s representation of the NHS service is harshly accurate, with the characters, conversations, and circumstances very believable.

This Might Not Be It flows nicely, capturing the mundane aspects of Angela and Jay’s jobs mirroring workplace conflict and professional boundaries being crossed. Each scene transitions with typing sounds that are all too familiar to office workers, and Laura Howard’s lighting veering between clinical and dim, and switching along with the tone of the play.

Baker and Baidoo dazzle as Angela and Jay, a duo who don’t get off to the best start with Jay wanting to modernise the admin side of CAMHS much to Angela’s dismay and reassurances that the system has worked well ‘for decades’. She has seen it all… except, perhaps, some enthusiasm. Baidoo, fresh from Dear England on the West End, is remarkable as the multi-layered Jay. He is bright eyed and bushy tailed, ready to make a difference despite butting heads with Angela. Baker is fantastic as straight-talking Angela, who always has a tale to tell while drinking tea. A stellar duo, who capture their characters brilliantly throughout.

Angela and Jay clash, they talk over one another, but as time goes on their connection deepens and they actually get to know one another. Chetin-Leuner taps into the plight of young carers with Jay talking about caring for his mum, and also Angela’s musings on why she decided not to become a psychiatric nurse. Things start to patch up, and what was once a generational battle is replaced with trust and friendliness.

This Might Not Be It is Dolly Webb’s stage debut, and what a fantastic one. She plays Beth, a 17-year-old whose looming 18th birthday means she has to migrate over to the adult mental health pathway. This is a really well thought sub plot, pivotal to the story, and representative of many who have unfortunately slipped through the cracks this way. This could have perhaps been explored more but given how much was packed into 85 minutes I think it wasn’t a bad go at all and got the message across. A huge bravo to Dolly for a wonderful debut.

Alys Whitehead’s set design certainly makes us feel like we are in a cluttered office with no detail left out. Piles of paperwork, rubbish bins overflowing, a solitary plant and a tired old printer that takes some effort to print a referral. There is also a small reception area with NHS self-help posters stuck to the walls, and so tight for space that anybody who enters ends up hunched over and too big for the space.

Overall, I really enjoyed This Might Not Be It and think it really captures a real life crisis that is affecting so many people day in and day out.. Maybe there’s even a glimmer of hope that things could change for the better, and there are some people out there who will challenge the system and genuinely want to make a change.

At the Bush Theatre until 7th March 2024.