In theatrical terms, Hull’s tenure as UK city of culture in 2017 is already under way, as Hull Truck has begun rolling out a trilogy of plays dedicated to the city’s fighting spirit. Last year’s Dancing Through the Shadows returned to the darkest days of the blitz; now Janet Plater reopens the case of the most mysterious episode of the cold war.
The loss, in February 1974, of all 36 trawlermen on board the factory ship Gaul has always been difficult to comprehend. Conspiracy theories involving the trawler’s supposed espionage activities in the Barents Sea began to multiply. The Gaul had been sunk by a submarine; it had snagged on underwater listening equipment; the crew had been captured and issued with new identities in Russia.
To its credit, Plater’s play does not attempt to lend credence to any particular interpretation, nor advance any further suppositions. Instead, it deals honestly and compassionately with the experiences of a trawlerman’s family whose anger and bewilderment still haunts them.
Though the full circumstances of the tragedy may never be known, Plater’s play breaks like a wave of grief in a perfect storm. There’s a performance of quiet majesty from Sarah Parks as a widow who understands loss to be a way of life, although you sympathise with the tenacity of Hester Arden as a bereaved daughter determined to uncover the truth. Mark Babych’s production has the weight of genuine tragedy in that the outcome is preordained, though it is the capricious gods of government inquiries and media speculation to which we are all answerable now.
• At Hull Truck theatre until 29 October. Box office: 01482 323638.
