Nell Dunn, celebrated author of Up the Junction, Poor Cow and Steaming, has written this verbatim play because she was so outraged by the lack of care her partner was given when he died at home. She decided she wanted to find out how other people had coped and what their experience of the NHS had been. The result is a series of six monologues, which are based on six terminally ill patients, suffering from cancer and dementia, and what happened to them and what their families, lovers and friends did. One of the monologues is based on her; another is based on the jazz singer, George Melly. What they all have is common is the wish to die at home and have a dignified death.
The scripts are exactly what Dunn heard and recorded, but cut, re-assembled and interwoven. They describe both the good and the appalling behaviour of doctors, nurses and carers. But, inevitably, it is the horrors of being completely deserted, and the incompetence, ignorance and sheer tactlessness which make the most impact. One doctor, on being thanked for doing nothing, replied, ‘Don’t worry; I’m well paid for this.”
Home Death is impeccably acted and the present season at the Finborough is already sold out. The script will, almost certainly, have a longer life at both a professional and an amateur stage level and should, hopefully, alert more people to the existence of the Marie Cure Cancer nurses who give their services for free.