“After years in practice seeing through a doctors’ eyes, I find myself on a crash-course as the patient. The view isn’t quite so attractive from this side, you’ll be surprised to know.”
In this bitingly funny, bittersweet comedy, served with a healthy dose of gallows humour and a slice of magical cake, we learn what it means when the doctor becomes the patient.
For GP, Dr Jeffrey Longford, a cancer diagnosis propels him into a new life on the other side of the stethoscope. The world he held true undergoes brutal challenge as he transitions from high status, knowledgeable practitioner to vulnerable, dependant and at times, terrified patient.
Losing his title in exchange for a patient label and querying the professions’ steadfast view on assisted dying are just two of a glut of issues which throw Dr Longfords’ long-standing belief system into sharp relief.
From an award-winning team including a writer who was a former GP, Heartsink is filled with acute wit and humane comedy as it describes this collision of perspectives and tackles ostensibly unfunny issues with insightful empathy and compassion.
We caught up with playwright Farine Clarke to learn more.
What can you tell us about Heartsink?
Heartsink is a medical term to describe a patient guaranteed to make a healthcare professionals’ heart literally sink, when they walk into the consulting room. For good reason it’s no longer used! Heartsink is a comedy about a doctor who becomes a patient and is propelled into a new life on the other side of the stethoscope. He swaps his title, with its accompanying status, knowledge and control for a patient label with its associated fear, uncertainty and vulnerability. Along the way three other characters with their own stories to tell, interact with the beleaguered doctor; Irish patient Cara who conceals a devastating secret behind hypochondria while force feeding her doctor cake, Suzie the receptionist whose caustic tongue masks a brilliant philosophical mind and Dr Roofi who takes on the unenviable task of reminding his colleague about his professional and societal duties. Heartsink is an entertaining play in its own right but also shines a fresh light on how healthcare is delivered and received today. These themes affect us all, either right now or in the future.
What inspired you to create this piece?
As someone who was once a doctor but became a writer, I guess I write about what I know. I often feel as if I’m on the outside looking in. I understand the medical world because I was trained in it and am surrounded by it- my husband’s a doctor and I have lots of medical friends. But I’m also distant from it, having spent decades in publishing. As a patient I see what they see, but through opposite eyes. I see the irony of not only my situation but also the system overall. I also see the power struggles in healthcare and wherever I see inequality it seems right to share it, to expose it and discuss it.
I’m not anti or pro any one side of this complex healthcare world, but I hope what I present is a fair understanding of two sides which are intricately linked their purpose but wide apart in their experience.OI belive improvement comes through understanding.
How have you approached bringing the themes of the show to life?
Humour underlies this play. Heartsink raises some ostensible very unfunny, serious issues including assisted dying, patient labelling by condition (an asthmatic, a diabetic) a system which strips people of their identity, and a surprise about grief which I won’t give away here. It’s why hospitals overwhelm us. It’s why white coat hypertension exists (my blood pressure goes up on entering an outpatient department!) The only way to bring these topics to life and make them accessible to all, is to use characters with whom audiences sympathise together with lashings of humour. That- and having an ace director in Sean Turner together with a fantastic cast and creative team overall.
How has the Assisted Dying Bill coming through Parliament shaped the play?
Many healthcare professionals are anti the AD Bill- seeing it as the slippery slope to forcing people to end their lives prematurely. My husband is anti because his patients are elderly, often sitting on valuable property and already consider themselves a burden. By contrast no one really disagrees with the human right to exercise choice when it comes to how one dies (except perhaps on religious grounds). Once again, I see the arguments from both sides. I had a friend who took herself to Dignitas and I understand why. I also wish she could have died peacefully at home, surrounded by friends, looking out over her garden; all prevented by the availability of one pill.
Whichever way we fall, I don’t believe our certainty about Assisted Dying is the problem because it’s easier to theorise about an issue when it doesn’t directly affect you. Heartsink doesn’t tell anyone what they should or must think. What it does do is point out that society has a duty to have the conversation about the unforeseen consequences of this Bill. Whenever there’s an ethical dilemma in medicine there are always two sides. In Heartsink we have one character who is forced to suddenly see both sides. The theory becomes a reality- what does that do to his views? We’ve scheduled Q&A post-performance sessions with audiences and ‘specialists’ every Wednesday to debate further.
How did you approach moving from your medical career into a creative one?
I loved medicine and admire healthcare professionals. It’s a very tough job and requires incredible resilience. My problem is I always wanted to write. I’m first generation South Asian and my parents were pretty clear; there was Woolworths or medical school- nothing in between! I feel very privileged to have been a doctor; people let you into their lives and you witness every emotion close hand. I gained insights I would not otherwise have.
But I think in dialogue and I had to write; my only way in was through medical magazines, which at that time were huge 160 printed pages a week, controlled circulation titles (40,000 doctors) covering scientific , political and human-interest news and features. I hounded the Editor of the leading magazine for GPs, called Pulse, writing to him weekly for about a year (blush now at the memory) until he finally took me on as a freelancer. The deal was they taught me magazine-craft and how to hone my writing skills in exchange for my checking the medical copy for accuracy and tone. I freelanced every day for another year until he finally gave me a contract. I then moved into wider news-stand titles but that was in management roles. I found myself running businesses. It was after an illness and life renewing operation that I appreciated no one has forever and set up Unequal Productions to resume my love of writing.
The play approached some important themes around healthcare, how did you blend your own personal experiences into the play?
When I started writing Heartsink I didn’t think any of me would be in it. It’s nothing like my last play; I was just writing what I know about and raising issues which struck me as ironic or unfair. As the characters took off, I couldn’t help but incorporate some of my story as a patient as well as what I’d witnessed happen to other people as a doctor. I’d buried one tragedy deep inside for decades, only to let it out when the character called for it – I didn’t plan to do that but see it now as an homage to the, unimaginably brave, family involved.
My personal healthcare experience is a collision of two perspectives; I hear what the professionals say to me but I’m listening for what they’re not telling me. It’s like living in a Snoopy cartoon where the consultant’s “Let’s see how this goes” speech bubble translates into, “Well this looks pretty dire”. Things I took for granted as a doctor become challenging as a patient and I can’t help but comment; the endless terribly signposted corridors, the computers which detract from eye contract, the depersonalisation, the labelling. We’re taught to stop patients from developing illness behaviours, but the system encourages it. God forbid you try to book an appointment armed only with your name, address, phone number and exact location of a birth mark. If you don’t have your hospital number you’re screwed. At the same time, I understand the pressure healthcare professionals are under – Heartsink comments on the systems rather than clinical care.
What was the first piece of theatre that had a big impact on you?
I remember being taken to see ‘Harvey’ in London as a child in the 1970s. I think James Staurt was in the lead but it was the magical mix of fantasy and very hard, quite scary, truth and emotion that struck me. I thought it was the most imaginative, cleverest three-dimensional performance I’d ever seen. I still think the writer was a genius.
What keeps you inspired?
Creating is inspiring. The best moments are having an idea which someone else makes better which -for me- means creating with others. I also find random characters like Nelson Mandela, Oscar Wilde and any of the suffragettes, inspiring. People who may not have been perfect themselves but stuck their necks out and were unafraid of the parapet. I used to love riding my horse (now too old & I’m a bit bent) and nothing reminds me of how beautiful the world can be than roaming around in the fields, talking things out with an animal.
What do you hope someone takes away from seeing Heartsink?
Truth. I hope they recognise the truth and feel it gives them voice. I want audiences to come away fully entertained but also armed with unique insights, which stimulate lively discussion in the bar afterwards. We had a reading last year and that was the response- people loved it (thankfully including the medics) -but it also made them discuss and debate.
Heartsink runs at Riverside Studios in London from Tuesday 21st April until Sunday 10th May 2026. Tickets are available from https://riversidestudios.co.uk/whats-on/Gg-heartsink-a-bittersweet-medical-comedy/
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