John Godber has always had a fondness for punning titles: Perfect Pitch for a play about caravan parks, or On the Piste for one about skiing. So what is the title Poles Apart likely to signify? A study of east European migrant workers? A lewd comedy about erotic dancing? Arctic exploration?
It touches on the first two topics, but is primarily a play about scaffolders. The idea came when theatrical producer David Pugh had team of workmen outside his office. Their presence proved a severe distraction, and Pugh thought there might be a play in there somewhere – and that Godber would be the obvious choice of writer.
The scenario features a stressed theatre manager who comes in on the morning of an important premiere, only to discover that the scaffolders who failed to materialise three months earlier have now erected a 30ft structure in the middle of the set. There’s no writer better versed in the codes of blunt-headed machismo than Godber, whose frank, uncensored dialogue is reminiscent of Bouncers, with a better head for heights. But it’s also clear that Godber – whose recent play the Debt Collectors featured a firm of bailiffs stripping a bankrupt theatre – is increasingly worried about the marginal relevance of art to the man on the street.
Rob Hudson bears the embattled look that comes with running an arts organisation and Adrian Hood the heft of someone who subsists on all-day breakfasts. It doesn’t exactly break new ground, but Poles Apart at least has passion and half a tonne of steel tubing to hold it all together.
- At Hull Truck theatre until 14 November. Box office: 01482 323638. Then at Stephen Joseph theatre, Scarborough, 16-21 November. Box office: 01723 370541.
