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07:00 - 12-May-2008
Two, Jim Cartwright's play about a Friday night in a northern boozer, features a set as strangely angled as the characters which pour through its doors.
But as peculiar as many of them are – Mrs Iger with her love of 'big men' or Moth, a sweaty, ageing lothario – all are convincingly real. And each of their stories prove to be funny, gripping and slightly tragic – all deeply human in other words.
The play rests on what at first might seem a gimmick, the Two of the title refers to the number of actors who play all 14 characters.
But in Rob Hudson and Julie Higginson, director Nick Lane has found two actors finely attuned to creating the ticks and quirks which make each of the pub visitors recognisable individuals.
And it's a set-up which works well. Instead of the distraction of a large cast, the duo's performance becomes a bravura piece of storytelling in which each of these characters arrive, fully formed, in front of us.
Two begins with the landlord and landlady, constantly bickering as they begin service at the start of a busy Friday night.
It's an acid banter which continues each time they appear, pouring another dose of poison into each others' ears.
This pairing are a constant throughout the play – inbetween up pop a series of different oddities which through the strength of the writing, and acting, never slip into simple caricature.
Some of them are funny – the aforementioned Mrs Iger “I love big men... a man with a tongue like an elephant's ear” has a tiny husband, for which Rob, his body swathed in a huge coat, shuffles around the stage on his knees.
And other characters are quietly moving, such as the old gent – Rob in a flat cap and with a whispery laugh – who wanders in for his pint of mild “They think I'm quiet,” he tells us. “What they don't know is that I'm having a very good time within.”
While these seem brief glimpses into the lives of others, the clever structure of Two sees these characters help push the landlord and landlady into confronting their anger.
Behind the bitterness is something tragic, which in the hands of this writer, and this cast, becomes something uplifting.
Two runs at Hull Truck Theatre, Spring Street, Hull, until Saturday, May 24. Nightly, at 8pm. Tickets cost £6.50-16.50. Call (01482) 323638.
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Rob Hudson and Julie Higginson, in Two, at Hull Truck Theatre
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