THE
NOUGHTIES:
The millennium and beyond!
2007
A record-breaking year, which
saw us stage seven world premiere productions, scale three national
tours, hold the theatre's first ever PlayWrite Festival, and take our Youth
Theatre to make history by performing inside Westminster; here we look back
over
the highlights of 2007 at Hull Truck...
January
Nick
Lane's comedy My Favourite Summer premieres to
high critical acclaim at Hull Truck:
**** The Times
"A
blissfully funny rite of passage comedy" The
Telegraph
Hull Truck's new-look website is launched.
The Education team commence
a three month digital learning TIE project, in conjunction with the NRF,
Children & Young
People’s
Services Directorate, Hull City Council and seven local primary and secondary
schools.
A brand new production of John Godber's classic comedy, Perfect
Pitch, heads
out on national tour.
February
My Favourite Summer heads out on national tour
The Trucktacular Gang close another record-breaking season
of Truck Tales with their spectacular show,
'A
right Royal Riot'!
Hull Truck's Schools
Tour of Bouncers continues to win high praise
as it visits schools accross Lincolnshire and Yorkshire.
March
A
brand new production of Richard Bean's gritty workplace comedy Toast opens,
winning high critical acclaim.
The Spring Festival sees
another diverse selection of artists and companies take to the
Hull Truck
stage, including the London Shakespeare Workout and Fecund
Theatre Company.
We are treated to a
side-splitting dose of comedy, as four top British comedians
take to the Hull Truck stage.
Hull Truck's Little
Red Riding Hood poster design competition is launched
to Hull and East Riding primary schools. Entered by seven
schools, the winning entrant's work - the wolf painted by Aidan McGlone
(aged 8, of St Nicholas Primary School) - was proudly published in
our Autumn/Winter
07-08 brochure,
posters, flyers
and
website.
April
A farmyard revolution mounts on stage as the Youth Theatre
perform their first production of 2007, Animal
Farm
The world premiere of Ladies
Down Under, the highly-anticipated sequel
to Amanda Whittington's smash-hit comedy Ladies' Day, opens to rave
public response, reuniting the original cast and marking the Hull
Truck debut of Aussie actor Damien Warren-Smith.
Led by legendary British
storyteller Chris Bostock, the
second Truck Tales Easter Eggstravaganza takes
place; with hundreds of 'funky young chickens'
and 'beautiful bunnies' showing off their fancy dressing skills at
the post-show parade!
May
By popular demand, following its sell-out premiere run back in
April 2006, a Rugby legend is brought to life once again in Sully; written
by up-and-coming Hull playwright Dave Windass.
Global warming meets crown green bowling in John Godber's world
premiere production, Crown Prince, which
sees former Youth Theatre member
Hester Ullyart make her professional debut on the Hull Truck stage.
June
Hull
Truck's first ever PlayWrite Festival takes
place, showcasing three provocative new plays themed around the Wilberforce
2007 themes of
Freedom, Belief
and Pride; written by nine of the emerging new
writers participating in Hull Truck's PlayWrite scheme.
Crown Prince continues to win high critical
acclaim and marks new heights in the career of its prolific writer
and director, John Godber;
"(his) funniest and
sharpest play for some time" The Stage
"The
most radical drama he has produced for some time" **** The
Guardian
Top TV psychologist Raj Persaud debates
and discusses all things Love and Relationships in a unique show, part of
this year's Humber Mouth Festival.
July
A new group of aspiring
writers aged 18-28 are set to learn all the tricks of the playwriting
trade, as a new term of PlayWrite begins.
Female audiences fall weak at the knees as a middle-aged 'man band'
rock the Hull Truck stage in the world premiere of Gordon Steel's
new comedy, Wilde Boyz!
We take a midsummer dip in a Chocolate Fountain as part of a special Wilde
Boyz event!
The Summer season of Truck Tales comes
to a sizzling end with the sell-out show Trucktastic Travel, performed
by Nick Lane's storytelling troupe the Trucktacular Gang!
Katy Moore joins the Hull Truck team as Development Coordinator,
to help raise vital funds and sponsorship as we prepare for the move
into the new building on Ferensway.
August
Hull Truck buzzes with excitement as top international musicians
- including Britain's finest Jazz composer, arranger and pianist,
Stan
Tracey - present
a diverse selection of shows as part of the Hull Jazz Festival
2007.
The Youth Theatre wow local audiences with their Wilbeforce world
premiere production Slavers, by local writer
Rupert Creed. The play ignites a passionate response from
public and press alike;
"Dazzles both in its inventiveness and the assurance
of its young cast" Hull Daily Mail
"A
really good, powerful play with a very strong cast of talented
young actors. Well done to all involved
- a highly recommendable play." Tina,
audience member
September
Tim Firth's Laurence Olivier
Award-nominated play, Neville's Island, lands
us shipwrecked on a foggy isle on Derwentwater with a bunch of
clueless co-workers, in this dark
comic
tale
of
the team-building weekend from hell!
Hull Truck's 30th Anniversary tour of John Godber's Bouncers hits
the road; set to visit twelve large-scale venues accross the UK.
Hull Truck favourites Matthew Booth,
Jack Brady and James Hornsby are joined by Emmerdale star
Marc Bolton - back by popular demand following his unforgettable
Hull Truck debut as Melvin in My
Favourite Summer - to form this brand new cast of
'Men In Black'.
The Trucktacular Gang make fun of the September back-to-work blues,
kicking off the Truck Tales storytelling season with 'Monster
Jobs'!
October
An internationally-acclaimed Flamenco company, a former
drug smuggler, a horse made
out of a shopping trolley, and a spoof world music band,
all
feature
in another eclectic programme of entertainment at the Hull
Truck Autumn Festival!
Following an invitation from Right Hon. John Prescott MP (who
had seen the play back in August), the Youth Theatre
perform Slavers at Parliament as part
of the British Council slavery debate; becoming
the first ever theatre company
in history to stage a play at Westminster.
Hull Truck stages its second Wilberforce world premiere, Sold;
a groundbreaking drama co-written by John
Godber and Jane Thornton, exposing the dark and disturbing
realities of today's international sex trade under the theatrical
spotlight.
November
Sold continues
to stun Hull Truck audiences before the production
heads to Liverpool Hope University, where it
is presented
as part of
the
2007
Cornerstone Arts Festival.
Pheonix
Nights star Justin Moorhouse lightens the mood with an evening
of top stand-up, followed by a sell-out gig from the legendary
Andy Parsons.
Following
a smash-hit tour of the UK, the
mighty Bouncers return
to Truck to
perform two weeks of sell-out shows to a rapturous
home crowd.
After beginning the year with the premiere of his first ever play for adults (My Favourite Summer), Nick Lane rounds off 2007 with his world premiere comedy, Blue Cross Xmas.
Marc Bolton makes a swift transformation from Bouncer to 'Big Bad Wolf' as he takes to the stage alongside Amy Thompson in Little Red Riding Hood.
Set in the 'Fairytale Court', presided over by the honourable 'Judge Fudge', this unique adaptation of the classic tale sees Wolfy battle against Little Red in the 'Trial of the Big Bad Wolf', and the audience act as jury as they vote for their winner at the end of the show. Needless to say, Wolfy won!
2006
A literally groundbreaking year!
Phew - what a year it's been here at Hull Truck! One minute we were saying "I Want That Hair" at Jane Thornton's brand new commission back in February, the next we were going 'crackers' for the world premiere of John Godber's magical festive play, Christmas Crackers!
We've had a truly groundbreaking year in every sense - artistically, financially and physically; literally breaking new ground when construction work began on the Ferensway site of our brand new building last November. Our new state-of-the art venue is scheduled to open in Autumn 2008, but we will continue to entertain our loyal audiences here at our legendary Spring Street venue until then; show after show, filling our auditorium to bursting point with hundreds of avid 'Hull Truckers'!
Here's a look back at the highlights of a truly phenomenal year:
January
Gordon Steel's legendary festive comedy, A Kick in The Baubles, enjoys sell-out success, with star Rob Hudson's reindeer jumper doing overtime well into the New Year!
Nick Lane's Xmas Kids' smash-hit Scrooge 2 eases the pain of the back to schools blues for children and families everywhere!
February
John Godber's Wrestling Mad hits the road on national tour
Jane Thornton's brand new commission I Want That Hair enjoys great success at Truck before embarking on a 55 venue tour across the UK
A record audience enjoys the half-term Truck Tales special with Pascale Konyn; with dress-up fun and cool sea-themed crafts afterwards!
March
The world premiere of Up
On Roof - the
gritty smash-hit drama about Hull Prison riot of 1976 by the renowned Richard
Bean - performs to high critical acclaim
and marks the professional debut of former
Hull Truck Youth Theatre star, Rachel Helen.
The nuns of Hull Truck
Youth Theatre’s Once a Catholic stun
and scare us senseless, and the show completely sells out on all four nights.
April
Tony Robinson headlines a top line-up of names at this
year's spectacular Spring Festival.
Innovative touring company Moby Duck's stunning family show The
Tiger Trail sells out and performs to a packed auditorium
of enchanted children!
ENVIRONMENTAL EASTER EGGSTRAVAGANZA at Truck Tales!
Hundreds of children participate in a recycled Easter bonnet parade and
competition at this
special edition of the storytelling show - fast-becoming a firm family
favourite!
May
The boys are back in town in Men
of The World: a fresh new production
of John Godber's classic comedy sets us on the road for Summer.
A legend returns and a record is set with the highly-anticipated
premiere of Sully; a dramatisation of the life of Rugby hero written
by local talent Dave Windass, which sells out weeks in advance (and
proved so popular, it's back for 2007)!
Hull Truck plays host to Hull Fostering Network's annual awards ceremony
and the party celebrate with a dazzling afternoon at Truck Tales.
A dynamic new production of the classic dark comedy, The Woman Who Cooked Her Husband - written by Debbie Isitt, director of the hit 2006 British film Confetti - cooks up a storm on stage. (And we all stuff our faces at the free chocolate fountain before performance on Valentine's Night!)
The newly-formed storytelling troupe, The Trucktacular Truck Tales Gang, debut at Truck Tales and immediately become the stuff of legend; with all their subsequent shows selling out months in advance!
July
Amanda Whittington's 'tuneful' comedy Satin N Steel proves massively popular, despite the soaring (and often unbearable) heat inside the Hull Truck auditorium!
Everybody's favourite 'tale-teller', crazy Chris Bostock, closes a record-breaking summer season of Truck Tales with a Gigantic Snake - among other stories! Sales figures for the storytelling series report an amazing 52% increase within a year!
August
After the Jazz Festival things
go quiet inside the theatre as we enter the 'dark period' (two weeks
where
we have a good old clean up/sort out!),
so we get out and about promoting our work at various
summer events across the city!
Hull Truck Youth Theatre works its magic on Morgan Sproxton's brand
new play, Game Boys & Console Cuties.
September
The new Autumn/Winter 06 season opens with an outstanding new production
of John Godber's gritty Amsterdam-based comedy Unleashed!
Families and kids get fruity and help us make a scarecrow out of vegetables
at the Harvest Festival special of Truck Tales!
October
History is made at Gareth Tudor
Prices's acclaimed adaptation of Shakespeare's chilling tragedy, Macbeth;
the first ever play to be set in the round at Hull Truck in 20 years!
Granny Vampire, Moby Duck's latest family spectacular
scares as sellout audience senseless, before things get even spookier
at the 'Dead Good
Dress-up Competition' at Truck Tales...
November
Leading touring theatre company, Red Ladder, bring Hitchcock's screen classic Vertigo to
the stage at Hull Truck.
The smash-hit Ladies' Day returns
for a limited number of sold out shows, following a overwhelmingly
triumphant tour of the UK!
Amid the surrounding rubble, noisy drilling and frequent ground tremors,
Hull Truck wins the prestigious Office Angels Office
of The Year Award!
Hull Truck gets technical with the launch of our online ticketing
service.
Work gets underway on the Ferensway site of our brand new state-of-the
art venue, and its scheduled Autumn 2008 public opening becomes an
exciting reality!
December
Christmas Chaos hits Truck,
with an avalanche of advance ticket sales for this year's festive
family treat, Snow White! Tickets
sell out
before the show even opens, so three new performance dates are added
to satisfy this huge public demand!
John
Godber's world premiere play, Christmas Crackers, proves
an instant hit; achieving incredible sales way above and
beyond target, and smashing all
previous Box
Office records!
Hull Truck host a record number of Christmas
parties; welcoming some 550 people to celebrate the festive season in truly
dramatic
style and
end
the
year on a Hull Truck high!
2005
2005 was the year that saw John’s 50th play Wrestling Mad marking his 21st anniversary with Hull Truck as Artistic Director. John Godber and Jane Thornton won two BAFTA Awards for their BBC 2 drama Odd Squad. Gareth Tudor Price accepted the position of Associate Artistic Director.
Hull Truck toured in the spring with Going Dutch by John Godber, after playing over the Christmas period, touring up and down the UK for 6 months. Kissing Married Women by Gordon Steel, also toured, visiting 55 venues from February to mid May. Bouncers played at the Viaduct Theatre in Deans Clough in Halifax for two and a half weeks. Associate Artistic Director, Gareth Tudor Price, presented The Lonesome West by Martin McDonagh. Accrington Pals performed by Hull Truck’s Youth Theatre, completed the 2004-5 autumn/winter season.
Hull Truck continued to enjoy success in the Spring/Summer season 2005 with Amanda Whittington’s Ladies’ Day smashing box office records and a successful Easter Festival including the sell out Fish ‘N’ Leather written by Gill Adams.
The extensive Autumn/Winter season continues into early April of 2006. It saw the return of two popular plays, Up ‘N’ Under and Cooking With Elvis, which both toured nationally. John Godber’s classic Salt Of The Earth also returned. Nick Lane adapted George Orwell’s classic 1984, for Hull Truck’s stage. Family and school audiences alike were entertained with two new Christmas productions penned by Nick Lane When Santa Got Stuck In The Fridge and Scrooge2: The 12 Days Of Christmas which toured special schools and hospitals as well as playing at Hull Truck. Christmas 2005 also saw the welcome return of Gordon Steel with a new play A Kick In The Baubles that broke more box office records and kept the festive spirit going well into the New Year.
2004
The New Year began on a high note with Black Tie And Tales and The Snow Queen, (which sold out with a record 92%) of all seats filled! A new commission by Alison Watt, Life’s A Beach directed by Alice Bartlett proved extremely popular drawing in new, older audiences. Similarly, the regional premiere of Under The Whaleback, by East Hull playwright Richard Bean, proves a hit with audiences across the board. At the close of the financial year Hull Truck Theatre had achieved a record number of attendances! 60,000 people had come through the door in the year April 03 to April 04, the greatest achievement in the company’s history.
2003
The year kicks off with the final few shows of John Godber’s Reunion, which then embarks on tour, whilst Men Of The World, a play about coaching holidays, returns.
In February, Hull Truck produces Lee Hall’s controversial and award winning play Cooking With Elvis. Other productions include Albert Nobbs by Gordon Steel, which then tours nationally, in the spring, to 41 venues! Godber’s Bouncers kicks off the spring programme selling a fantastic 93% of seats. Women On The Verge Of HRT directed by Alice Bartlett exceeds financial targets and fills 89% of seats. The theatre is rewarded for its arts-business partnership, with Smith & Nephew and the Children’s University, with the Arts and Business regional award, for partnership excellence.
Autumn sees the opening of Screaming Blue Murder, John Godber’s 40th play, which then goes out on tour. Black Tie And Tales plays at the theatre for the Christmas period.
2002
We began the New Year with Gordon Steel’s A Pair Of Beauties proving to be very successful and then going on to tour nationally throughout the UK. Gareth Tudor Price was appointed as Associate Director in March 2002. On The Piste also toured to middle and large scale venues over the springtime. The Hull Truck Youth Theatre production this spring was The Threepenny Opera with a cast of 23! April In Paris by John Godber opened in April to launch our new season and then the company presented the controversial play Oleanna by David Mamet and directed by Gareth Tudor Price. John Godber and Nick Lane adapted Moby Dick, the classic book written by Herman Melville. Other plays produced were Double Top by Ron Rose and Blue Remembered Hills by Dennis Potter, presented by the Hull Truck Youth Theatre.
The autumn sees the return of Studs by
Gordon Steel and then goes onto tour nationally, the famous Lady Chatterley’s
Lover adapted by Nick Lane and starring Tim Vincent; both directed by Gareth
Tudor Price and two new Godber plays, Men Of The World which also toured
nationally in the autumn, and Reunion played to audiences over the Christmas
period. This years Christmas kids show was The Hunchback Of Notre Dame.
2001
The New Year started with an exciting world premiere Studs from the hand of Gordon Steel and to end the fantastic autumn season Hull Truck produce the highly entertaining The Woman Who Cooked Her Husband. The Hull Truck Youth Theatre present Transformations, written & directed by our very own Education Officer Catherine MacPherson, what can I say – “If you missed it, you missed out”. A promising start to Hull Truck’s 30th Anniversary year! Godber’s On A Night Like This tours extensively throughout the UK.
We celebrate the start of the spring Season with an original, modern dance piece, Pigs, painting a gritty picture of Brits abroad. We brought back the very popular Big Trouble In The Little Bedroom for three weeks before it went on to visit Wakefield & York. Following Big Trouble…’s comic family fun, we gave you the chilling tale of Dr. Faustus & the revolutionary Little Malcolm & His Struggle Against The Eunuchus they both went on to play in Wakefield.
A successful Co-Production with the Queens
Theatre, Hornchurch, brought back, the much loved Perfect Pitch, to its’ home
turf. John Godber’s world premiere of Our House ran over July, this was
a special show for our 30th anniversary, and our creative production team built
us a second auditorium, it gave an overall ‘out door’ feel with
real grass & plants. The first half of the play was set in the characters
garden and the second (our usual auditorium) in the family home. A complete
sell out which had rave reviews from both press and the public.
Also during the spring / summer season we toured with On A Night Like This & Frankenstein
to small, middle and large scale venues throughout the UK
The autumn season opened with September In The Rain, which then went on national tour along with John Godber’s World Premiere of Departures. This production also had two successful runs in one season and its return hit an incredible audience attendance of 93%. Hull Truck was also thrilled to present David Hare’s The Blue Room made popular by Nicole Kidman’s performance in London and Alan Ayckbourn’s five piece drama Confusions added a new flavour to the programme.
The Christmas production welcomed the return of the West End hit On The Piste, this then went on tour around England for the next 6 months. Also running over Christmas was the sell out fairy tale Beauty And The Beast, adapted once again by Nick Lane.
2000Again in 2000 Hull Truck has had a phenomenal year, breaking Box Office records from all previous years. Hull Truck started its run of successes with a co-production with the West Yorkshire Playhouse Seasons In The Sun a World Premiere and a smash hit with the Box Office. To follow, Frankenstein adapted in true Hull Truck Style and Glass Menagerie, two perfect classics to start the season. Then we see the return of a few Hull Truck favourites, old and new, Perfect Pitch and Thick As A Brick back by popular demand after an extensive sell out tour both reaching well over their targets for ticket sales, and Bouncers as popular and as up to date as ever, broke its target and reached a fantastic 94% before heading out on a sell out Tour. Again Hull Truck was acknowledged at the prestigious, annual Chartered Institute of Marketing Awards, where the theatre was very proud to win the runners up for marketing excellence.
Hull Truck toured nationally in the spring with Thick As A Brick and Unleashed which were brilliant successes.
The success of the spring season continues into the autumn where Hull Truck kick starts the season with a brand new adaptation of Bully followed by the award winning Education Rita. Teechers returns, obtaining full marks at 99% followed by Bouncers directed by Gareth Tudor Price at 96% -an up beat endnote for its 2000 tour. Bouncers then transferred to the Whitehall Theatre in the West End in January 2001.Ending the year on a high a brand new comedy On A Night Like This runs for 6 weeks over the festive season effortlessly reaches and exceeds its target to do an amazing 86%. Also a children’s story telling of A Christmas Carol a fantastic hit with young and old - a record-breaking, millennium year.
