The unavoidably lo-fi nature of this performance - live streamed and recorded as an intercut set of seven monologues by medical and health workers who were effectively first responders to the crisis of COVID-19 in NYC, from their own homes - worked in its favour, buttressing the sense of realism that already came with its concept and form. The workers are actually actors, but playing real people (not composites), telling stories of the pandemic, the response to it, and the systemic failings that it highlighted.
It's an excellent piece of 'recorded theatre', ultra-contemporary in subject and depiction, and highly convincing, with most - not quite all - of the performances persuasive about the reality of the people behind them, and the political messages delivered in a way that, again, felt true because unforced.
(live streamed and recorded; w/ R and - virtually - Hayley)
