Scottish nurse's dark comedy play to 'revel in gallows humour' of working in NHS

The pressure on Scotland's NHS nurses is to take centre stage into a new dark comedy - written by a real-life nurse who is also juggling a career as a playwright.

The play by Uma Nada-Rajah, one of the rising stars of Scottish playwriting in recent years, will be one of the centrepieces of the 2025 programme at both the Tron Theatre in Glasgow and the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh.

The writer, from Kirknewton, in West Lothian, said she wanted to capture how day-to-day life working in a hospital could be both "funny and tragic” and the “dynamics” between different generations of nurses.

NHS staff will be given a sneak preview of the play in a special read so they provide feedback on the script, which Nada-Rajah hopes will address “a dearth of well-drawn nurse characters in popular culture.”

Her Glasgow-set play, Black Hole Sign, which is also part of the National Theatre of Scotland's 2025 programme, will take place in a "crumbling and under-staffed accident and emergency department.”

Ms Nada-Rajah said the play, which is being jointly produced by the Tron and the Traverse, would revel in the gallows humour that is “part and parcel” of working in the health service.

The Tron said the play, which is expected to explore changing attitudes to the NHS, will take a "razor-sharp scalpel to the absurdities, tragedies and hilarity within one of our most beloved but besieged institutions."

Ms Nada-Rajah, a critical care nurse in the NHS, has previously worked with the National Theatre of Scotland, including as a political comedy writer-in-residence and on the short film The Domestic, which she wrote during the early days of the Covid pandemic, after the introduction of "no visitors" rules in hospitals.

She told The Scotsman: "I’ve been a nurse for about 10 years now, but I started writing plays prior to that. Initially I was doing odd jobs and did some care work to support my writing.

“Inspired by my aunty, who has recently retired after 44 years in the NHS, I decided to become a nurse.

"Nursing and playwriting are very different vocations, so I find it easy enough to switch gears.

"I currently work part-time in critical care, which both allows and forces me to be particular about which writing projects I embark upon, though I do occasionally regret my life decisions when asked to turn over script notes after night shifts.”

The Tron's announcement on Black Hole Sign states: "When a hole appears in the roof of a crumbling and understaffed A&E department, patients, porters and nurses do what they must to make it through the night.

"Personal principles clash with professional obligations as three generations of nurses and one 'long in the tooth' porter are pushed towards breaking point."

Ms Nada-Rajah said: "There is one character in Black Hole Sign that has lived in my imagination for a few years now.

“But this play is really born out of my fascination with the dynamics between different generations of nurses: the old-guard of matrons, gen-X, millennials and gen-Z, all with different sensibilities and worldviews, all with such different conceptions of what nursing is."

Ms Nada-Rajah's first full-length play - a dark comedy focusing on a fictional Home Secretary with prime ministerial ambitions who is thrown into chaos when a PR stunt badly backfires - was staged at the Traverse Theatre during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe two years ago.

Black Hole Sign, which was originally commissioned by the Traverse, will be staged there next October after its initial run at the Tron in September. The play will be directed by Gareth Nicholls, artistic director at the Traverse.

The writer said: "I feel honoured and delighted and, in all honesty, a bit daunted about the play running at the Tron and the Traverse.

"I’m excited to see what NHS workers will make of it. There is a dearth of well-drawn nurse characters in popular culture- I hope to get it right. I have been interviewing nurses and porters as a part of my research for this play, which has been a rich and fascinating process.

"Prior to the play’s opening we are planning to do a reading of the script aimed at NHS staff, with the aim of getting some feedback.

"The play is comedic in parts. It revels in the gallows humour that is part and parcel of working in healthcare.

“I hope the play makes people laugh, perhaps makes people cry and gives some pause for thought on the significance of care in our society."

Black Hole Sign has been programmed for the first full season of work at the Tron under new artistic director Jemima Levick, who previously worked with Ms Nada-Rajah when she led the long-time lunchtime theatre company A Play, A Pie and A Pint.

Ms Levick, who described the show as a "very, very dark comedy," said: "Uma sent it to me and asked if I would read it and give her some feedback.

"It is genuinely one of the most unique plays I have read in a really long time.

"She's a full-time nurse and really wanted to write something about the NHS. She said to me: 'If anybody should do it, I should do it.'

"it's really about the extraordinary nurses that hold that institution together and the crumbling infrastructure that we're all aware of but don't witness on a day-to-day basis.

"It is so dark and so funny. There are a couple of speeches in it that make your heart fall out or your mouth.

"There's never been a Scottish NHS play before, but it feels like the right time. We're really excited about it."

Other shows in the new Tron season include Man’s Best Friend, a new one man play by Douglas Maxwell, which will see River City and Scot Squad star Jordan Young play a young man who has been walking the dogs of his neighbours to help help him cope with his feelings of loneliness and loss.

Ms Levick will be directing a new adaptation of A View From The Bridge, American playwright Arthur Miller’s classic, which was first staged on Broadway in 1955.