Suhana Limbu, Associate Culture Writer
Glas Scorpion Theatre Company’s Nocturnal is the New Sexy uniquely contributes to the well-known–yet still overlooked–fact that the NHS workforce is experiencing staff shortages, high turnover, and unmanageable workloads. Written and directed by Esme Sharpington, this dark comedy follows Alice (played by Alix Lander), an NHS call-handler, who’s been switched to night shifts whilst her boyfriend, Ben (played by Toby Lyons), works a nine-to-five job at a stationery company.
Nocturnal challenges what we think we know about modern relationships, revealing how external systems cause greater strain than realised. Inspired by Sharpington’s shifts as bank staff for NHS services, perhaps that’s why the play’s vulnerability is undoubtedly raw and honest. Yet, within all these serious themes, the play is delightfully humorous. Particularly in the first half, the play’s script kept to a witty and dynamic pace.
I especially felt that Alice’s free-spirited, zany sister, Jules (played by Kambua Hillman), kept the play’s comedic whips alive. Hillman’s incredibly playful performance commanded the stage, sparking convincing sisterly chemistry with Alice. Although this comedy is also intentional, especially through Ben’s character. Lyons successfully delivers the frustratingly easy-going boyfriend, whose habit of ‘joking around’ plays a part in Alice’s contrastingly intense work-life balance. A joke even nodded to the previous ‘Clap for NHS’ movement, pointing out its performativity. It’s a familiar and real dynamic.
Nocturnal recurringly reinvents mundane objects into surreal moments. Move-in boxes are included in the cast choreography, making boxes seem like they’re surreally floating around the stage. As Alice and Ben’s relationship gradually collapses from work pressure, colourful Post-it-Notes slowly engulf the stage’s backdrop. An air mattress often moves into and around the stage as the couple switches, crashing into bed from their misaligned shifts. It’s fast-paced, disorientating, and a beautiful reinvention of the domestic. The play’s claim of absurdism is certainly fulfilled.
Undeniably, the show powerfully wove many events around Alice’s emotional arc, answering larger questions about the current healthcare system alongside profound ideas around familial, platonic, and romantic relationships. However, although I felt intimately involved in Alice and Ben’s relationship, I was left wanting more from Alice’s other connections: Jules, Charlie, and even Alice’s coworker, Darren. Whilst these characters conveyed how far neglectful systems can affect individual social circles, there were certain opportunities for further character exploration that felt open-ended.
Before attending the show, I knew that the NHS are largely unsupported; nonetheless, Nocturnal awoke an unrealised slumber of ignorance. The show exposes intimacies and pushes the restraints on the modern relationship, often making me feel like I’ve interrupted a private moment between real people. It also left me with an enlightened perspective on the individual lives within recent headlines of national NHS strikes. The play’s core is exceptional and glaringly relevant.
Nocturnal is the New Sexy will be showing at the Edinburgh Fringe from the 17th to the 22nd of August 2026.
