The Debt Collectors, Theatre Royal, York
Godber's latest worthy of credit
Who would be an actor? It is a question I ask myself on a regular basis. What is it that drives someone to perform night after night in half-filled theatres on rainy evenings in provincial cities, or endure the humiliation of audition for a walk-on part in an afternoon soap?
Not being an actor one can only guess at the answer but after watching this debut play from the newly formed John Godber Company one can only say, "Thank God they do what they do."
Rob Hudson and William Ilkley play Spud and Loz, two out-of-work actors who turn their skills to the less noble but more regularly paid art of debt collection. Their performances crackle with angst and humour. From the pit of failure they dredge great big laughs. "We've got 100 years' experience and we are still doing bollocks," they lament – the glory days of The Bill and minor theatrical tours now firmly behind them.
Instead, life becomes a tour of the sad world of the victims of society's obsession with having things and not paying for them.
Anyone who has ever knocked on a door for a living will recognise their half-hearted inquiries and the secret hope the person behind it is out. But in the end it is not so different to acting.
The job takes them via the occasional handjob from a Polish hooker to the musty home of a pensioner wrongly hounded over money she never owed before returning them on a repossession to the theatre where they last worked.
This is Godber's 60th play but one that marks a new beginning for him. Having spent 25 years building the Hull Truck into a £15m premier league theatre destination, he dramatically walked out as artist-in-residence earlier this year in opposition to the decision to make artistic director Gareth Tudor Price redundant. Having canvassed opinion from the likes of fellow Yorkshire legend Alan Ayckbourn, Godber formed his own company with his wife and fellow playwright, Jane Thornton.
Their home theatre will be the Wakefield Theatre Royal – close to the mining community where he grew up – and Godber intends to produce two touring productions a year. The Debt Collectors is an exciting start to this new chapter. It will be interesting to see the play's reception when it goes to Hull for two weeks in November where he retains a devoted audience.
Touring to 3 Dec (01924 211311; www.theatreroyalwakefield.co.uk/ thedebtcollectors)
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