Super High Resolution reviews at the Soho Theatre ★★★

"Compelling exploration of a crumbling NHS"

"Directed by Blanche McIntyre, Nathan Ellis’s drama serves as a reminder of what cuts are doing to our health service but it tells more than it shows"

"The impact of being constantly relied upon is laid bare in Nathan Ellis’s strong but predictable NHS drama, where Anna (Jasmine Blackborow), a drained junior doctor, spends her too-long days apologising for the structure that is disintegrating around her."

"Blackborow is compelling as Anna: kind, resilient and yet gradually becoming numb"

"Blanche McIntyre’s staging is joltingly still, the primary action being the swish of hospital curtains which surround the set. As a result, the cast of six spend a lot of time hovering awkwardly in hospital corners, backlit by Andrew D Edwards’ and Prema Mehta’s neon-stripped set."

"Hard hitting and important tale about the state of the NHS"

"Jasmine Blackborow stands out in this story of a junior doctor under extreme pressure"

"Nathan Ellis’s play blends low-key realism with sardonic wit and is anchored by a terrific central performance of tightly contained emotion by Jasmine Blackborow. It’s also somewhat mechanical in the way it puts her character Anna through the professional and personal wringer, especially at the end."

"There’s a pleasing economy to Ellis’s writing. He often leaves things unsaid or implied... At other times, though, Ellis really spells things out"

"Blanche McIntyre directs this impassioned new drama about NHS burnout"

"Ellis's rave-reviewed previous play, 'work.txt', felt like a real moment: the audience came together to perform it, creating an emotive sense of temporary community. The subject matter here is more obviously heartstring-tugging, but it doesn't have the same emotional impact. Still, it's a valuable reminder that an embattled, underfunded NHS isn't just failing its patients – it's failing its staff too."

"Articulate warning"

"Compassionate, darkly funny depiction of individual and institutional crisis in the NHS"

"... it is a departure from Ellis’ more experimental earlier work: a conventional, and largely predictable, depiction of gruelling toil in the beleaguered NHS"

"There’s a whiff of the formulaic about the wall of well-meaning platitudes and incomprehension Anna is up against, and Becca’s aspiring medic stepdaughter Sammy, though played with sharp teenage truculence by LJ Johnson, is thinly drawn."

"Fleabag in navy scrubs"

"Written by Nathan Ellis, it is punchy, mordantly funny and occasionally soapily melodramatic, and it is anchored by a star-making performance from Jasmine Blackborow. She plays Dr Anna Harris as a kind of Fleabag in navy scrubs — competent, self-contained, cutting and completely falling apart."

"As a portrait of pressure and the expectations we place on those who care for us without a thought for who is caring for them, it is striking and timely."

"A captivating performance from Blackborow, who has a radiantly expressive face, demonstrates how Anna is so professionally composed but personally unsure"

"Blanche McIntyre’s confident production knows that it is on to a winner with Ellis’s script and is unafraid to let the silences linger when they are needed"

"Jasmine Blackborow comes shooting out of the traps as a glowing talent in Super High Resolution"

"Nathan Ellis’s new play steadily emits the white heat of working in the NHS, spinning on its title, with Blackborow’s young clinician Anna pitting personal commitment and resolution against the impossibility of actually resolving problems exacerbated by scarce resources, strained nerves and crazily protracted hours. Catherine Cusack as Meredith, who has been longer in the job, is a terribly convincing warning of what may be to come: tautness, deafness to others."