Stella Feehily's This May Hurt a Bit is a play with an agenda; one might even say, a mission: to save the National Health Service. From its opening monologue – an almost verbatim reading of a speech given to the House of Commons by Aneurin Bevan in 1948 – to its last lines (“We must fight. There is still time”), the play is a call to arms on behalf of the NHS. Indeed there are times in the first half when the play starts to feel more like a party political broadcast, with facts and figures hurled at the audience, pointed asides from actors stepping out of character, and the NHS itself portrayed as a dying woman in a hospital bed.

The political messages of the play are woven into and around the story of Nicholas, who is dealing with his own diagnosis of prostate cancer, the increasing frailness of his mother Iris, and the visit of his right-wing – and, therefore, of course, appalling – sister Mariel and her American husband. As Iris is treated in the local hospital for a fall and memory loss, her determination to be treated on the NHS is pitted against the desire of Mariel to have her transferred to a private hospital as quickly as possible, while the caring but overworked medical staff do their best to deal with underfunded and overcrowded wards.

The play mixes the main narrative with interludes of comedy, music, dancing, lecturing, and surreal touches, including commentary from Winston Churchill and Aneurin Bevan, the state of the NHS presented as a weather report, and even an appearance by the Grim Reaper, scythe and all. This is not a subtle play, nor is it intended to be, although there are some touching moments as Iris, on a chaotic hospital ward, attempts to come to terms with what is happening to her. Ultimately, however, the narrative is there to serve the play's political purposes, but even to someone sympathetic to the play's aims, the first half in particular had a tendency to hector the audience somewhat. The second half, by comparison, was more narrative driven and more dramatically satisfying.

The ensemble cast are excellent throughout, Stephanie Cole as Iris in particular providing the play with a heart (and also nabbing most of the best lines). Brian Protheroe makes a sympathetic Nicholas, while Jane Wymark keeps Mariel just the right side of appalling, making her a believable character rather than the pantomime villain she might otherwise have been.

All in all, This May Hurt successfully manages to be both thought provoking and highly entertaining, and is well worth watching. Sadly, I suspect that the people who stand to learn the most from the play will be those least likely to watch it.