Zero Down

Complex, political and skillfully wrought, this tight three-hander about a group of overworked and underpaid care workers in a geriatric home makes for a gripping and ultimately devastating hour.

“Zero Down” refers, with casual cruelty, to cutting working hours – the threat that hangs over each of these zero hour-contracted non employees who are constantly clocking in and out despite having to remain available all day. With kids to feed and Wonga loans to repay, the financial pressures and psychological burdens of precarity lead the three women to turn on each other as a plot involving the abuse of a patient and a nurse who may not be who she says she is plays sickeningly out.

Writer Sarah Hehir is brilliantly cunning at playing on our sympathies. As soon as we think we have a character pegged—as a racist, a bully, a victim or a fool—she pulls the rug out from under us and our allegiances switch. She sharply teases out the subtle contradictions of prejudice and privilege – educated Erin can’t stand the intimidating school leaver Benni’s casual xenophobia, but has an undeniable strain of snobbishness and bigotry herself.

The three performers have a palpable ensemble dynamic, and manage to find real depth and humanity in a group of characters whose actions could easily seem damnable. As well as being an incisive, wittily observed character drama, Hehir’s script fiercely dissects the limits of empathy, and the violent self-centredness that can flourish under unbearable social circumstances.