Up 'n' Under at Hull Truck Theatre By Nicholas Boldock

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Once upon a time, there was a young boy called James Crossley. James liked to play sport and did a lot of exercise. He bought himself some weights and trained hard until he became big and beefy. When James grew up he grew his hair all silly so that he looked like a blond spaniel. Then he became famous and got a job on television as "Hunter" on Gladiators. Gladiators was great but James/Hunter was a bit of a knob and became quite irritating, although not as irritating as Wolf, who may or may not have been a bit too old for that kind of thing. Eventually, Gladiators got the chop and James took his pugil-stick and went off into the sunset, popping up briefly in Emmerdale just to demonstrate that he couldn't act any better than he could pick hairstyles.

Well, somehow, he can now. With those annoying poodle-locks happily shaved, James Crossley turned up in the 20th Anniversary run of John Godber's Up N Under at the estimable Hull Truck theatre. As Tony - fireman, amateur rugby player and wannabe lap dancer - Crossley showed there is more in his armory than just bulging muscles and an unusual ability to hit people really hard with a giant cotton bud.

He showed the comic timing necessary to carry off Godber's best lines and didn't seem overawed to be performing in front of a packed house in the renowned director's home theatre. His physical acting was impressive too - in particular his hilarious slow-mo reaction to the head butt from Frank was excellent. It wasn't all about James Crossley though. The performance was very much an ensemble piece. All the actors were superb. Martin Barras (who enjoyed two years as an Emmerdale regular back in the 80s) was outstanding in the dual roles of Steve, a mechanic and part-time rugby player, and Reg, the loudmouthed coach of the Cobblers Arms rugby league team. Kate Baines (Hollyoaks' Beth Morgan) was another pleasant surprise as Hazel. Maybe a decent script brought the best out of her - for her last six months in Hollyoaks, just about all Beth had to say was, You raped me! I'll get you, Scott Anderson! or variations thereof. Which, forgive my dismissive tone, is not to make light of such a controversial topic.. God forbid anyone should forget what a nasty rapist Scott is.. oh hang on.. the entire population of Chester has forgotten already..

But I digress. This week, Coronation Street said farewell to one of its more endearing characters, Harry Flagg. Iain Rogerson, the actor who played Harry, appeared here as Arthur, the coach of the Wheatsheaf rugby team. Weatherfield's loss is most definitely Hull Truck's gain. For me, Rogerson was the star of the show. His quality and experience as an actor is obvious and he was a pleasure to watch throughout. It would be remiss not to also mention Rob Angell (a superbly understated performance as over-the-hill butcher Frank) and James Weaver, outstanding in the role of porn-obsessed teacher Phil. Phil's dream sequence, where he dreams he is being chased by the whole of Pontefract was a marvellous solo scene and one of the highlights of the whole play.

Needless to say the script had been brought up-to-date and included some deft in-jokes for the rugby fans in the house (You're not Sean Long, no matter what colour your boots are!). Come to think of it, the very act of including a joke about Sean Long in a play about a bad bet is comedy in itself. Local references were plentiful also. A delightful tongue-in-cheek moment came during the slow motion sequence of the team's 3-mile-run during training. We ran past Makro and Comet, says Phil. Fabulous. Maybe you had to be there.

Continued on www.thisisUll.com...... Next Page.

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