Reykjavik at Hampstead Theatre review: spooky, gritty and gripping tale of Hull fisherman during the Cod Wars

Gritty, spooky and enthralling, Richard Bean’s caller play is 1 portion terse workplace drama, 1 portion folkloric storytelling session. No, no, wait, it’s miles amended than that sounds.

It’s acceptable successful the mid-Seventies erstwhile the brutal and precarious livelihoods of trawlermen successful Hull’s distant h2o sportfishing fleet were curtailed by restrictions preventing them moving wrong 200 miles of Iceland successful the alleged Cod Wars. It explores the lives of braggardly and sometimes horrible men with sympathy but nary mendacious romanticism, successful authentically wide accents and opaque jargon. I was gripped throughout.

The 2 constants successful Bean’s penning are its assortment of benignant and taxable – you ne'er cognize what to expect from him – and a playful tendency to propulsion comic riffs to their implicit limit. Hull-born, helium explored below-decks trawler beingness successful 2003’s Under the Whaleback, but present opens connected institution manager Donald Claxton (John Hollingworth)), archetypal of his household to spell to assemblage alternatively than to sea.

One of Claxton’s ships, the Graham Greene, capsized successful an icy tempest with the nonaccomplishment of its skipper and astir of the crew. He is to embark connected the “Widows’ Walk”, visiting each bereaved household connected foot. The calamity and its answering ritual are a inheritance hum arsenic helium wrangles with his father, debates with a young priest, summarily sacks a skipper and flirts with a fishwife whose hubby Jack (to her regret) survived the sinking. There’s overmuch incidental speech of food hauls, tonnage and the enactment rhythm of a trawlerman – 3 weeks on, 3 days off.

It's a subtle portion of realism played retired connected Anna Reid’s meticulous Seventies bureau set, wherever hints and snippets of speech let america to infer reams of information. Big surprise, then, erstwhile we’re transported successful the 2nd enactment to an arsenic vivid Reykjavik edifice barroom wherever 3 of the survivors and the sardonic young patroness speech banter and bullshit. Claxton’s quality prompts tales of loss, shade stories, and a consciousness that immoderate convulsive sacrifice is required.

Director Emily Burns lets the play unfold astatine a naturalistic gait adjacent erstwhile it takes bizarre oregon magical turns, and the performances are superb. Hollingworth is charismatic but contained arsenic the conflicted Claxton. Matthew Durkan is astonishing arsenic a groovy young vicar and past hypertense Jack: endlessly incapable to recognize the metaphor astir urinating connected idiosyncratic who’s connected fire, abruptly murderous astir the nonaccomplishment of his “favourite finger” to frostbite.

There’s beauteous enactment from Paul Hickey arsenic a riddling past mariner, Matt Sutton arsenic a gentle bosun awaiting quality of his child’s commencement amid overmuch death, and Adam Hugill arsenic the young, randy and charmingly dimwitted “deckie learner” (apprentice). The travails of the women successful this satellite are mostly viewed done a macho, antheral filter, but Laura Elsworthy (as Jack’s “superspicious” wife) and Sophie Cox (as Claxton’s perky caput and arsenic eye-rolling hotelier Einhildur) marque their mark.

Contemporary parallels astir insecure employment and Britain’s narration with its European neighbours are contiguous but not overstressed. As with different Bean plays – One Man, Two Guvnors; The Heretic – I went successful clueless and came retired buzzing.