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Review: On A Shout ****
There is something very ... 'Hull' about the work that comes out of Hull Truck Theatre.
It is difficult to pinpoint the exact recipe: a dash of pathos, a sprinkle of darkness, a ladle-full of comedy – all mixed in the cauldron of the tiny Hull Truck auditorium and cooked over the heat generated by unfailingly strong performances.
Dave Windass's latest play, his second full-length piece of theatre, adheres to the recipe closely. The result is yet another success for the theatre, and a second for former journalist Windass.
The story for On a Shout comes from the days when the writer was a local journalist and ventured out to meet the characters that make up the bread and butter of local newspapers.
One fortuitous week Windass headed to Spurn Point to meet the members of the country's only full-time lifeboat crew and the seeds for his play were sown.
The collection of characters are the perfect mix for Hull Truck audiences, used to the plays of John Godber which scour the mundane and difficult lives of the working-class for moments of poetry. Windass finds similar.
He tells the story of alifeboat crew, made up of an inept recent graduate, an earnest and reliable old hand, a cocky womaniser. Into this mix comes Jo, a female new recruit. The characters are painted with broad brush strokes, but that does not necessarily detract from their depth. Standing at the centre of the story is George, nearing retirement age and on his final shout. Out on the cruel North Sea, which has claimed the lives of George's father and brother, George is swept overboard and towards Davy Jones's Locker.
While battling the sea, he remembers back through his life and we are shown the stories of those who manned the lifeboats before him.
Windass has a bank of characters he accesses for the play – some hilarious and surreal like David Barrass's Ronald Rix, some heartfelt like Laura Doddington's Louise. All of them feel real.
Windass's first play was about a Hull rugby legend and here he makes legends of a group of Hull characters.
At Hull Truck Theatre until Feb 16.
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Weather for Yorkshire
Saturday 26 May 2012
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