"When the Wind Blows" at the Grove Theatre

This review contains spoilers

‘When the Wind Blows’ is a play, set in the mid-1980s, about an ordinary couple in late middle age, Jim and Hilda Bloggs preparing to survive a nuclear war. Jim is a practical man with unwavering faith in the wisdom of the powers that be, he follows governmental advice to the letter. Hilda is house proud: she doesn’t her paintwork scratched, she doesn’t want the windows painted white, she won’t use a potty while they are sheltering from the fall out, she is horrified by the thought that if she dies she is to be wrapped up in plastic bags and labelled. But they are both naive; neither of them understand what’s going on. They relate ‘the bomb’ to the experiences of being bombed in the second world war. They have no concept of the horrors that await.

The first half, preparation, had lots of moments of humour generated both from the opposition of Jim and Hilda and from the fact the the audience knew more than the innocents on stage. The second half, following the explosion, showed a bewildered couple facing new realities: a world without radio or TV, without electricity or running water, without birdsong or the noise of traffic. Their preparations are inadequate: many of the bottles of water they had readied were knocked over by the blast and the contents spilled. They drink rainwater. They breathe the air. They are being poisoned by radiation fallout. Slowly they become sick. They have headaches and diarrhoea, they vomit, their gums begin to bleed. They become weaker. Finally, still trusting that the emergency services will be coming to rescue them, they cuddle together.

In the second half, the humour continued but the feeling of doom spread through me like a poison. In the end I was left with a numbing and devastating sadness.

An extraordinary play, beautifully performed.

This review was written by the author of Bally and Bro, Motherdarling  and The Kids of God