DOUBLE TOP. To 27 July.

Hull

DOUBLE TOP
by Ron Rose

Hull Truck Theatre To 27 July 2002
Mon-Sat 8pm
Runs 2hr 5min One interval

TICKETS 01482 323638
Review Timothy Ramsden 19 July

Rough energy and an ace production score high in a right-thinking, left-leaning comedy.Diehard socialist Ron Rose shows himself on the side of the people with a joyous, thumpingly feelgood account of a women's pub darts team. It slaps the emotions on with a paintbrush but scores for its sophisticated structure. And the smashing cast; double top all-round. Including token male Robert Hudson's several cameos, from creepily lecherous lecturer to crotch-clutching self-styled stud, the husband-manager for fearsomely coiffeured darts-ace Kirsty.

But it's in the team the play's life lies. Prissy Marie may see these working-class women as material for her graduate thesis, but she ends up finding out a lot about life herself.

Her teachers are Chris, dolled-up mantrap, brazen-mouthed and kind-hearted, Jackie, with her drug-dependent teenage daughter, and publican's partner Kath - the practical researcher, with the low-down on rival teams' form.

They receive terrific individualised performances, from Michelle Butt's reigning confidence to Martine Brown's instinctive survivor mechanisms. The characters may be the stuff of TV soaps, but the actors' physical presence gives them vivid, individualised reality.

The script plays off expectation and surprise: a policeman turns out to be a stripper, hired by a couple of the women as a joke on Marie. Hudson's beefy act's a hoot down to the last truncheon wiggle, but Rose uses the sequence to make character points – Kath, not in on the joke, soon guesses what's up – she's seen this kind of thing before.

Unlike Marie, whose crushing humiliation shows how much she has to learn. When another policeman comes in Marie protests. But this time it's serious, with Jackie's daughter dead from drugs.

The subsequent scene could be melodramatic and sketchy, as the bereaved mother produces a bottle of pills. We know what's going to happen but Juliet Higginson's intense acting, precisely charted through grief to despair, and Price's willingness to let the feelings breathe, give human depth to the scene.

All the darts-playing's mimed, but there's still tension in the air as match after match falls to the team. Until the final, when – well, it leaves room for the sequel. Meanwhile, bull's-eye for Rose, Price and their spot-on cast.

Chris: Martine Brown
Kath: Michelle Butt
All Male Characters: Robert Hudson
Jackie/Kirsty Julie Higginson
Marie: Juliet Prew

Director: Gareth Tudor Price
Designer: Jocelyn Meall
Lighting: Graham Kirk
Costume: Jocelyn Meall, John Boddy
Fight director: Bret Yount

2002-07-24 00:31:44