It is said that a drowning man sees his entire life flashing before him. This is difficult to verify without actually having drowned, but it makes a convenient device for the dramatist, especially when the drama takes place aboard a lifeboat.
George is the very definition of a brave and loyal servant: if you stripped him of his yellow oil-skins, you would probably find the RNLI crest branded above his heart. George has seen his father and brother claimed by the treacherous waters off Spurn Point; now he appears to be about to join them, swept overboard by a five-metre wave while on a rescue mission - a "shout".
The promising Hull-based writer Dave Windass could hardly have picked a more ready-made study in dramatic contrasts than Spurn Point. Though barely ankle-deep in places, it is one of the busiest waterways in Britain - launching in an emergency can be like cutting across three lanes of motorway. Yet when things are quiet, there can be no quieter place on earth.
Gareth Tudor Price's production vividly taps into the irregular pulse of a group of characters whose lives are divided between salt-lashed heroism and the slow, domestic drift of life at the sharp end of the most isolated and unstable peninsula in Britain. There is a commanding performance from Edward Peel as George, and great support from his loyal crew, not least Laura Doddington as one of the country's small but growing number of lifeboat women.
Windass's complex, intelligent play is a fitting tribute to those in peril on the sea - the measure of its effectiveness was perhaps not so much the warm applause as the sound of money rattling into RNLI collection tins on the way out.
· Until February 16. Box office: 01482 323638.
