Last Friday’s Centre Stage performance was a play: Happy Jack by John Godber. John Godber is a well known playwright, originally from a mining family (this play is said to be based on the life of his grandparents), and with a longstanding involvement with the Hull Truck Theatre Company. The play told the life story of a Yorkshire couple – Jack, a miner, and Liz his house proud wife. We were given an overview of their life from courtship to retirement and then given vignettes of its highs and lows. The epithet ‘happy’ was ironic. Jack was at times angry, violent and withdrawn – but surprisingly also wrote poetry (including while his wife was giving birth!).
The tone was bittersweet: at times movingly painful, at other times making the audience laugh out loud. The cast from the Ratatat Theatre Company played it brilliantly holding this tension which made the play feel a believable life story.
