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| Hull Truck theatre returns to its roots | Hull Truck theatre returns to its roots |
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| Forty years ago, Mike Bradwell wrote to Harold Pinter soliciting funds for a new theatre company and received a suitably Pinteresque reply: "Dear Mr Bradwell, I will not contribute to Hull Truck theatre. Sincerely, Harold Pinter." | Forty years ago, Mike Bradwell wrote to Harold Pinter soliciting funds for a new theatre company and received a suitably Pinteresque reply: "Dear Mr Bradwell, I will not contribute to Hull Truck theatre. Sincerely, Harold Pinter." |
| "Oh, I wrote to everyone," Bradwell laughs now." John Cleese told us to piss off. Donald Pleasance sent a fiver. We even wrote to Durex suggesting that if they agreed to sponsor us, we would continue using their products." | "Oh, I wrote to everyone," Bradwell laughs now." John Cleese told us to piss off. Donald Pleasance sent a fiver. We even wrote to Durex suggesting that if they agreed to sponsor us, we would continue using their products." |
| In the early days, Hull Truck's base was a squat in a terraced house near the railway station. The office was a telephone box down the road. It was never the most obvious place to found an experimental theatre company, but as Bradwell says, "We were basically a bunch of hippies on the dole who wanted to do plays about hippies on the dole." Fast-forward to 2013 and Bradwell has returned for the first time in over 30 years to direct a play on the main stage of the company he founded. | In the early days, Hull Truck's base was a squat in a terraced house near the railway station. The office was a telephone box down the road. It was never the most obvious place to found an experimental theatre company, but as Bradwell says, "We were basically a bunch of hippies on the dole who wanted to do plays about hippies on the dole." Fast-forward to 2013 and Bradwell has returned for the first time in over 30 years to direct a play on the main stage of the company he founded. |
| Only now the company's home is a purpose-built dual auditorium, which opened at a cost of £15m four years agoas a replacement for Spring Street, the much-loved but sorely uncomfortable former church hall that Hull Truck had occupied since 1983. It ought to feel like a triumphant homecoming – unfortunately, it isn't quite like that. | Only now the company's home is a purpose-built dual auditorium, which opened at a cost of £15m four years agoas a replacement for Spring Street, the much-loved but sorely uncomfortable former church hall that Hull Truck had occupied since 1983. It ought to feel like a triumphant homecoming – unfortunately, it isn't quite like that. |
| Hull Truck, once kept buoyantly afloat by the marketable comedies of John Godber, began to list alarmingly shortly after moving into the new building. Godber acrimoniously severed his 26-year relationship in 2011, when the artistic director Gareth Tudor Price was dismissed by the incoming chief executive Andrew Smaje. Smaje himself departed abruptly in November last year, when it emerged that the theatre had received an emergency £1m bailout from the Arts Council. | Hull Truck, once kept buoyantly afloat by the marketable comedies of John Godber, began to list alarmingly shortly after moving into the new building. Godber acrimoniously severed his 26-year relationship in 2011, when the artistic director Gareth Tudor Price was dismissed by the incoming chief executive Andrew Smaje. Smaje himself departed abruptly in November last year, when it emerged that the theatre had received an emergency £1m bailout from the Arts Council. |
| Whatever Hull Truck audiences wanted to see in the post-Godber era, imported metropolitan comedies and co-productions with the London-based theatre the Gate didn't appear to be it. | Whatever Hull Truck audiences wanted to see in the post-Godber era, imported metropolitan comedies and co-productions with the London-based theatre the Gate didn't appear to be it. |
| Bradwell went on to successfully run the Bush Theatre between 1996-2007 and is scathing about Hull Truck's attempt to operate for two years without an artistic director. "Basically, you should never leave the creative decisions to the grownups," he says. "You just end up creating layers of administration. You have people getting paid more for putting up a poster about a play than for writing one. The facilities this building provides are amazing, but it's like a huge tanker – once it goes off course it takes a long time to turn it around." | Bradwell went on to successfully run the Bush Theatre between 1996-2007 and is scathing about Hull Truck's attempt to operate for two years without an artistic director. "Basically, you should never leave the creative decisions to the grownups," he says. "You just end up creating layers of administration. You have people getting paid more for putting up a poster about a play than for writing one. The facilities this building provides are amazing, but it's like a huge tanker – once it goes off course it takes a long time to turn it around." |
| Happily, there is at last a new captain at the helm. Mark Babych has extensive experience of regional rep, having run the Octagon in Bolton for a decade up to 2009. He takes up his new position early next month and has already begun househunting in the area. "Mike Bradwell was native to this region, so was John Godber," Babych says. "I'm not, but I'm making it my business to get to know this city as intimately as I can. I'm already beginning to find out what a complex place Hull is. There's the mercantile docks on one side, the fish docks on the other, and the theatre sits almost exactly in the middle". | Happily, there is at last a new captain at the helm. Mark Babych has extensive experience of regional rep, having run the Octagon in Bolton for a decade up to 2009. He takes up his new position early next month and has already begun househunting in the area. "Mike Bradwell was native to this region, so was John Godber," Babych says. "I'm not, but I'm making it my business to get to know this city as intimately as I can. I'm already beginning to find out what a complex place Hull is. There's the mercantile docks on one side, the fish docks on the other, and the theatre sits almost exactly in the middle". |
| Babych concedes that his first target must be consolidation. Not the most thrilling rhetoric perhaps, but unavoidable given the theatre's precarious situation. And there are reasons for optimism: Toms Wells, Morgan Sproxton and Dave Windass are part of a new crop of Humberside dramatists who have recently done good business; while companies such as Middle Child have a DIY ethic that mirrors Bradwell's own original band of unemployed students. | |
| "We might have come full circle," Bradwell says. "Angry kids are leaving college with no prospects, huge debts and a desire to make work for themselves rather than waiting for someone to give them a job." As for Babych, he acknowledges that he has a stiff task on his plate: "Though I wouldn't have accepted it if I didn't think it could be done. We will still have to look at co-productions and sharing our resources with other theatres - in the current climate there's no other way. But the crucial thing is not to lose our sense of identity. More than anything else, Hull Truck has to recover its soul." | "We might have come full circle," Bradwell says. "Angry kids are leaving college with no prospects, huge debts and a desire to make work for themselves rather than waiting for someone to give them a job." As for Babych, he acknowledges that he has a stiff task on his plate: "Though I wouldn't have accepted it if I didn't think it could be done. We will still have to look at co-productions and sharing our resources with other theatres - in the current climate there's no other way. But the crucial thing is not to lose our sense of identity. More than anything else, Hull Truck has to recover its soul." |
| • This article was corrected on 26 April 2013 because the original misnamed Dave Windass as Dean. |