CONFESSIONS OF A CITY SUPPORTER To 13 June.
Hull.
CONFESSIONS OFA CITY SUPPORTER
by Alan Plater.
Hull Truck Theatre To 13 June 2009.
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat 13 June 2pm.
BSL Signed 5 June.
Post-show discussion 2 June.
Runs 2hr 10min One interval.
TICKETS: 01482 323638.
www.hulltruck.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 28 May.
Lovely new theatre revives popular Hull City play.
Grandad, dad and Bill have all supported City. It’s a tradition, as is being born on a nil-nil match day. And calling the eldest son William. There’s another tradition too, involving Hull City’s first goalie Martin Spendiff’s alleged cap. It marks out the family’s women, who see a dirty piece of headgear, from the men who see a piece of history. The women (all played by Una McNulty) possess the granite-mannered resolution necessary to survive in a male-driven culture, softening slightly through the generations as the men become newer in attitude, from the 1900s when no birth was going to keep a man from his match, to the modern age when a potentially useless father-to-be has to be cleared out.
Alan Plater’s indulgent script is more lecture-demonstration than drama in manner. It’s buoyed up by technology – screens, images, bursts of music in Gareth Tudor Price’s production. And even more by the cheery performances, mainly Martin Barrass as the supporter whose eventual ‘confession’ is less than earth-shattering, or ball-breaking.
Acting more as cheer-leader than character, Barrass smiles and enthuses, propping up lines and lame running-gags that stand-in rather too easily for any real look at Hull City past or present. There are references to the bad times, with blind refs blamed for almost every adverse decision or disappointing result. And celebration of more recent triumphs.
As Barrass whips up popular sentiment for the team, what does emerge in the reactions of a clearly – and rightly - partisan audience is the importance of football in people’s lives and the way a team can give emotional identity to a town. Though it could be a subject for a survey to find out how much the working-class pair played by McNulty and Roy North match the aspirations and lifestyle of keen audience-members colouring the auditorium with various forms of Tigers’ strip.
Confessions is always amiable and often-enough quite amusing. And Hull Truck’s production celebrates the team, the city and their own gleamingly spacious new theatre. But it lacks the laugh-aloud pointed, economic wit of Plater’s best work. And that’s a tradition worth keeping alive.
Bill: Martin Barrass.
Mary: Una McNulty.
William: Roy North.
Director/Sound: Gareth Tudor Price.
Designer/Lighting: Graham Kirk.
KC Anthem Composer: Jonathan Sumpton.
Costume: Samantha Robinson.
2009-05-31 17:39:05