The Observer - Review: The Guinea Pig Club

Tue 23 Oct 2012

Written by Clare Brennan

Writer Susan Watkins's debut drama about the second world war pilots who became the "guinea pigs" for innovative plastic surgeon Archibald McIndoe delivers a great story in a deceptively simple and direct style, economically conveyed through Damian Cruden's incisive direction.

The pilots in McIndoe's converted hangar ward have been horribly mutilated (finely judged prosthetics by Steve Outhwaite and precisely conveyed disabilities from fine actors). In a richly textured performance from Graeme Hawley, McIndoe believes that new faces, limbs and bodies are of no use to men so damaged that they would rather die than live (heartrendingly exemplified by Stefano Braschi as Rusty Rushford). He insists that his medical team must tend to the whole man, even, if necessary, by flirting (incisive Anna O'Grady as Alice Harwood, the nurse caught in a moral dilemma). Without wavering for a moment from its subject, the play manages to extend to all victims of wars and, beyond, to emphasise that the heart of existence is "being", not "appearance".

Read the review on The Guardian and Observer website.