Poetry is not everyone’s cup of tea, but a look at one poet’s life gives a great deal of insight into how they think in the way that they do.

Now, a playwright who takes on this task could be asking for trouble, for poets are complex beings. To make a play entertain a varied audience for two hours takes some doing, but Ben Brown has succeeded in doing this with interest and amusement. The direction is admirable, being both sensitive and intuitive.

Backed by a superb cast headed by Oliver Ford Davies as Philip Larkin, a story is told of a man who went to live in the city of Hull in the fifties to become librarian to the university. If you have ever been to a library one wonders what goes on behind the doors. Now this play gives you some idea. The libraries of the land will never be the same again. This man became much more than a librarian.

Larkin’s secretary for a number of years, nicely played by Susie Blake, serves him well and is able to deal with his bachelor ways and idiosyncrasies until she too falls under his spell. This is the charm of the play, the effect that Larkin has on the women around him.

Monica is his lecturer lover of many years played with feeling by Carolyn Backhouse. This long standing arrangement brings together two poetical like minds for the benefit of us all.

Whilst Maeve, seeming to be there when wanted, is beautfully played by Suzy Aitchison who gives a sense of being betrayed. She is a lonely librarian on a course to improve herself.

The dramas that unfold for Thatcher’s favoured Poet Laureate, who never wants the job, are tragic and at times funny. He never seems to take poetry too seriously, always putting jibes and innuendoes into his writing.

Go take a look at the “Bard of Humberside” and have an enthralling evening. © BA

“Larkin with Women” is in repertory until the 27th of November, 1999.