Never Let Me Go review

Based on Kazuo Ishiguro’s beautiful, breathtakingly sad 2005 novel, this bittersweet Bildungsroman follows a generation of clones born into a quietly dystopian mid-1990s England. Although they enjoy a privileged upbringing in a progressive-seeming boarding-school, the students gradually learn that their limited education is only preparing them for brief lives of servitude and exploitation as second-class citizens destined to become mandatory organ donors.

Suzanne Heathcote’s confident adaptation skilfully weaves Ishiguro’s non-linear plot and pensive, philosophical observations into a focused, fast-paced play. The action jumps freely around in time, with director Christopher Haydon’s dynamic staging ensuring that every shift is clearly signalled, the closing moments of each scene being interrupted by the first words of the next. Haydon carefully controls the tone, ensuring that the piece never feels miserable despite its bleak premise. Overwhelmingly, the characters’ early lives are filled with squealing laughter, excitement and affection.

The cast – though somewhat uneven – share a tremendously warm chemistry, precisely charting the donors’ development from children, to teens, to young adults, keeping some mannerisms consistent while others shift over time. Nell Barlow gives an absolutely magnetic performance as narrator Kathy, capturing all of the doomed protagonist’s complicated, contradictory emotions. She is by turns reserved, desperate for love, guilelessly enthusiastic and calmly accepting. But when her composure finally cracks, the absolute, unguarded grief she channels is gutting.

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