Hull Truck Theatre Archives - North West End UK

2Nov

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

How To Be Brave – Hull Truck Theatre

The Godber Studio was very well-attended on Friday evening, when Hull Truck Theatre hosted How To Be Brave. Writer Louise Beech cleverly intertwined the lives of the two main characters in this true-life drama - one a Merchant Seaman in the Second World War, the other a 10-year-old girl. And, despite the 64-year gap in their stories, the two had an undeniable connection. The Able Seaman, Colin Armitage (Jacob Ward), was Beech’s grandfather, and the girl her daughter, Katy. And it’s her storytelling to young Katy of Armitage’s horrific ordeal during the war that proved to be of huge benefit for her daughter, who had been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes; helping her to accept and cope with her condition. Five very talented performers brought How To Be Brave to life, on the small s...

23Oct

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Frankenstein – Hull Truck Theatre

A cast of six brought the world’s most famous monster to the Hull Truck stage on Tuesday evening with a thought-provoking adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. As the 1818 thriller, now set in the war year of 1943, begins its second major UK theatre tour, would its producers, Tilted Wig Productions, have a monster hit on their hands? Stage settings are always something to look forward to at this popular local theatre and Tuesday evening was no exception. Though dark, unfussy and dimly lit, with sparse furnishings, the interior of a wooden cabin perfectly set the tone for the well-known horror story. I found the theatre itself was very cold on the night, which, though uncomfortable, added to the atmosphere. The cabin’s shabbily-dressed occupant, Captain (Basienka Blake - wh...

3Jul

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Guts! The Musical – Hull Truck Theatre

Hull Truck Theatre’s latest production, GUTS! The Musical, a world premiere, portrays the real-life struggle female fish packers at a local fish factory faced in their battle for equal pay. The stark stage setting of bare, “tiled” walls, soulless strip lighting and little else is what one imagines a processing frozen food factory to be like. The year is 1984 and the aforementioned workers are about to make and change history. Also making a bit of (theatrical) history of their own are the 57 members of the community who answered the call to bring this production to life. Space prevents me from naming them all, but what a fantastic job they each did. The factory in question, owned by a Mr Frank Fish (Andrew Clark) is based in Hull, with all the fishy business, historically, being...

Little Shop of Horrors – Hull Truck Theatre

24May

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Little Shop of Horrors – Hull Truck Theatre

There was an air of excitement in the packed foyer of Hull Truck Theatre, on Thursday evening, as theatregoers entered in their droves to watch a production of Little House of Horrors. Taking our seats, we were faced with a stage setting showing a small florist shop, on Skid Row, in downtown New York, belonging to a Mr Mushnik. Customers are few and far between, with drunkards and drop-outs being the only passers-by. Mushnik (Andrew Whitehead) has two assistants - nerdy Seymour (Oliver Mawdsley), whom he took in as an orphan, and the lovely Audrey (Laura Jane Matthewson), regularly battered by her abusive boyfriend, Orin (Mathew Ganley). Things were much livelier outside the shop, mainly due to three characterful females - guitarists Crystal (Zweyla Mitchell Dos Santos) and Ron...

1Apr

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Animal Farm – Hull Truck Theatre

When Snowball the angry, militant “pig” crept menacingly towards me, across the stage of Hull Truck Theatre on Thursday night, I began to think my front-row seat wasn’t such a good thing after all. I was at this popular local theatre to watch a powerful re-telling of George Orwell’s classic, Animal Farm - a book I had never read, but, it being a classic, knew the storyline of. Thankfully, Snowball (Samater Ahmed) spared me, directing his anger at the farm’s owner and his master, Mr Jones. The way Jones ran Manor Farm was not to the animals’ liking nor for their benefit, so they overthrow him, take over and create a new set of rules in which “all animals are equal”. However, it soon becomes apparent that the cleverest farm animals are the pigs - Squealer (Killian Macardle), Napo...

A Song For Ella Grey – Hull Truck Theatre

7Mar

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

A Song For Ella Grey – Hull Truck Theatre

Before sitting down to write my review of A Song For Ella Grey, a production I watched at the Hull Truck Theatre on the afternoon of Wednesday, March 6th, I felt the need to reacquaint myself with the ancient Greek legend of Orpheus and Eurydice, around which this play is centred. Orpheus, though invisible, features hugely in this darkly romantic tale and, never having read David Almond’s book from which this production is adapted, I had to ensure I understood proceedings before engaging my keyboard. As I took my seat on the front row, I was confronted by a stage setting of ceiling-high white voile curtains. Billowing gently, they draped over what appeared to be huge beds, again in white. Despite this abundance of white, Hull Truck itself was very dimly lit throughout, resulting i...

30Nov

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Pinocchio – Hull Truck Theatre

Theatregoers braved freezing temperatures on Wednesday evening to see a production of Pinocchio at the Hull Truck Theatre. It never got much warmer inside, to be honest - so was glad I wore socks, scarf, gloves, but I never expected to keep them on once seated. But that’s my only gripe on what was a magical night of colour and energy. Everyone knows the age-old story of how poor, lonely carpenter, Gepetto, carved a puppet out of a piece of pine he found in the forest. In this thoroughly enjoyable adaptation by Mike Kenny, the pine was left behind by Stromboli (Patrick Dineen), ringmaster of a travelling circus, who was transporting his puppets, Colombine (Deb Pugh) and Harlequino (Niall Ransome). As Gepetto (James Clyde) picked up the pine log in the forest, it lit up, havin...

11Oct

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Pop Music – Hull Truck Theatre

You never know what stage design Hull Truck Theatre will surprise you with for any of its productions. And Tuesday evening was no exception. As we theatregoers took our seats in a very busy Stage 1, the regulars among us would instantly notice the stage was now the centrepiece of a theatre in the round. A very clever move as the production we were there to see, Pop Music, features just two actors, two small tables and chairs, plus loads of booze, meaning there was plenty of room for an all-round view. The alcohol theme carried on up to the ceiling, from which hung dozens of upside-down wine goblets, some disguised as lights. Opaque in colour, they added interest to an otherwise sparse stage setting. But who needed a fancy stage with actors of the calibre of Natalie Anderson (Ha...

7Jun

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Sully – Hull Truck Theatre

Take a bow Chris Bewers and Luke James of The Yorkshire Workshop for creating the most basic stage setting for a production of Sully, which came to the Hull Truck Theatre, on Tuesday evening. Basic, but genius. I loved it. Let me explain… Sully tells the story of Hull’s favourite adopted son, Welshman Clive Sullivan, who played for the city’s two rugby league teams in his amazing career - Hull Kingston Rovers (yay, up the Robins), and Hull FC (whatever). The red and white strip of Hull KR is supported by those Hullites living east of the river Hull; the “other team” wear black and white and enjoy the loyalty of those living to the west of the river. I’m east Hull born and bred; my dad (Arthur Lewis) played for Hull KR, so my loyalty has never been in doubt. Back to the afore...

27May

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Modest – Hull Truck Theatre

Elizabeth Southerden Thompson was a name unknown to me until I watched Modest, at Hull Truck Theatre, on Thursday evening. The year is 1874, and budding artist Elizabeth (Emer Dineen), dares to not only paint a portrait of fighting Crimean War soldiers (a very unladylike act at the time), but also to enter it into the Royal Academy's public art exhibition at a time when women were neither seen, nor heard. Titled The Roll Call, it is generally assumed the scene represented the aftermath of the Battle of Inkerman; but that fact wasn't the mean reason the members of the Academy were against accepting it. They just couldn't get it into their top-hatted heads that a woman could envisage such a barbaric scene when she should be at home doing needlepoint and sniffing her pomander. The me...