REVIEWS REVIEWS
Mix a great script with four brilliant actors and you get success. That is what has happened at the Hull Truck theatre when John Godber wrote and directed a play called Going Dutch based on four people going on a birthday celebratory trip to Amsterdam via the north sea ferry the "Pride of Hull". Pip Leckenby supplies the minimalist scenery which is all that is needed to allow the scenes to come to life. Finely observed characterisation is expected from Godber at his best and this time he surpassed himself. We have the 50 year old man looking for that something, a wife who has got into that acceptance mode, a girl friend who seeks that perfect man and her friend who epitomises Yorkshire's worst, then put them together and wait, but not for long.
Not often do you get four actors who gel and raise each other's performances so that theirs vies for the top spot, but you have it here. Gemma Craven gives one of her best performances with Sally the straight laced wife accepting all that she is exposed too. James Hornsby shows what a good actor he is when he reveals his character, a children's jingles writer Mark, at fifty thinking he is taking his wife and her friend on a quiet trip to Holland for the sights and a plush hotel. Jackie Lye has a field day with her character Gill, a brassy girl who has never quite found what she is looking for. Now Rob Hudson as Karl is as rough as they come and not someone you would want to be in incarcerated with over however short a space of time, but he does it marvellously and you really hate him by the time you leave the theatre. We see them on the ferry, entertained by a not too good entertainer professing to be Neil Diamond during rough weather, experience a hairy car journey and, best of all, are with them when Sally eats cake and treats the audience to one of the funniest "pot" experiences ever — Gemma Craven is marvellous when the drug takes hold and gives one of the finest humorist performances ever. Savour it.
The audience laugh at themselves without realising it and thoroughly enjoy themselves before making their way home, when they will keep recalling lines and situations for time to come. It once again is too sophisticated for a London audience, but you do not know, they may venture into the wilds of greater England to see classy theatre. Brilliant, great. Enjoy the laugh. © BA
“Going Dutch” is in Hull from the 16th December, 2004 to the 22nd January , 2005 and then touring. Car parking charge £1.
