Themes

Empathy and compassion are at the core of this play and explored through every theme.

Viewing Economy And Society Holistically

From the beginning of the play, it is clear the overcrowded and underfunded hospital is under financial strain. The budget for staff biscuits is cut and even Rafal’s beloved swimming pool is closed. The appearance of toxic black mould is used as a motif to explore the hospital’s slow decline.

Budget constraints are also explored in the meetings between Rafal and the Minister of Health. The Minister has a focus on the economy and how to keep it stable while making small changes to improve the healthcare system. Rafal has a more radical stance and believes we need to completely overhaul the health system. He believes the system is fundamentally flawed as many of the illnesses people present with in hospitals could be prevented through a more holistic approach to welfare in New Zealand. This discussion of financial risk versus return is at the core of each scene between these two characters.

Systemic Racism

The play explores systemic racism through the issue of obesity in Aotearoa and individual struggles with stereotypes and microaggressions in the fight between Ana and Edie. Edie tells Ana she is frustrated when she cannot carry out a simple procedure on Seleni, a Samoan patient who is obese. Ana is angry with Edie for stereotyping Seleni and all Samoan people as being obese. She tries to explain to Edie that the issue is more complicated and requires a holistic view. This conversation is further explored In Rafal’s meetings with the Minister of Health about improving regulations to minimise obesity, especially in South Auckland.

Medical Responsibility

Early in the play, at dinner with Roza and the Nagels, Rafal discusses how medical mistakes are handled by hospitals, which sets up the question of who is to blame when a mistake is made.

This question is then further explored through the patients who come into the hospital. When Chris the cyclist is pumped full of blood, it seems like he won’t make it and the doctors have a frank conversation afterwards about whether it was the right choice to use all their resources on him if he won’t pull through.

Later, when Seleni’s amputated leg is cremated, her mother Tusi is upset as Samoan culture does not encourage cremation and the medical form that she signed was not clear about what would happen to the limb after surgery. The scene where Rafal, Dev and Edie meet to resolve the issue with Tusi highlights the vital importance of listening to patients and their whanau, and of doctors taking responsibility for their mistakes.

This responsibility weighs heavily on the staff, as seen in the toll of long shifts on Dev. Near the end of the play Dev and Rafal discuss medical responsibility and Rafal urges Dev to learn to trust his instinct and his medical experience. Things That Matter is a commentary on the flaws of the medical system as well as the humanity of the doctors and nurses who work extremely hard to save lives.

Coming To Terms With Loss

Loss is explored through the three patients' journeys at Middlemore Hospital. Rafal and the medical staff must decide when to tell each family about the difficulties to come for their loved ones. The medical staff help each family to understand how to manage the steep road to recovery. One of the major battles for each family is finding a way to accept their grief by letting go and finding peace with what has happened. At the same time Rafal is processing the loss of his father Leon –who appears as his conscience throughout the play – and coming to terms with the inevitable loss of his terminally ill mother. By the end of the play with Roza’s passing, he sings the traditional Jewish song, the Mourner’s Kaddish, to help to let her go.

Extension Activities

In groups discuss the themes of the play

• How are they relevant?

• Do they connect with you today?

• Can you see other themes emerging from the play?