Review: The Debt Collectors ***

The first play from the John Godber Theatre Company is a fasincating, revealing piece of work.

Having parted company with Hull Truck and the new venue which his work helped build, what Godber did next was a source of interest to many in the theatre world.

The answer is that he has struck out on his own and gone back to basics to write the sort of play he made when he was scraping together sets that could fit into the back of his car. The Debt Collectors is a two hander in the mould of his early work like Bouncers, a sparse piece in which the script is absolutely the thing.

What we discover from it is that Godber is a theatre animal through and through and that he is pretty angry.

Actors Loz and Spud are brought to (a long and weary) life by the fantastic pairing of William Ilkley and Rob Hudson. Spud used to be in The Bill and Loz has never reached such dizzying heights. Dragging their increasingly ageing bodies around the country to auditions, they have an epiphany and decide that debt collecting is where their future lies.

Godber, a scholar of Brecht, plays with the conventions of theatre and has Loz narrate the play, as though he is creating the tale as we see it. The conceit that the actors have just finished a national tour of The Dumb Waiter and are now in a theatre to collect on a debt allows for a cheap set, and the writer to muse on the notion of theatre itself.

This is not Godber’s funniest play and he is clearly working through some issues. The play sags in the second act, but when he puts in the mouth of Loz a stunning speech about how we have lost our values in the denouement, it is heartbreaking, thrilling and dripping with pathos.

This is not Godber’s finest hour, and he sacrifices some levity for having “something to say”, but it is never less than fascinating.

Theatre Royal Wakefield, October 18-22, then touring.