Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Joe Alessi, Sean Aydon, Tom Canton, Tim Chipping, Sean Jackson, Sean Murray, Paul Rattray, Jamie Sives, Susie Trayling, Jem Wall, Ewart James Walters, Steven Bradshaw, Adam Byrne, Eric Dean, David Dixon, Kevin Foott, Margaret Gill, Christopher Grundy, Lina Jankauskite, Jackie Jones, Sarah Kelly, Hannah McGowan, Kagen Plant, John Purcell, John Smith, Stephen Turner, Salantha Walton, Curtis Wilson.
It is good for the soul to go to the theatre and feel anger well up inside the small meagre frame, an anger that is righteous and on the side of common decency and one in which you can feel empathy, sympathy and pity for the conditions of the men and women who had undergo such treatment and practices that in any reasonable walk of life would have been outlawed long before they were. However if they had been then arguably the ever social conscious mind of Arthur Miller, perhaps America’s greatest 20th Century playwright, would not have conceived The Hook.
Going to the theatre, like life is not all about having a laugh, the taking in of the joyful spectacle and the overwhelming smile at the absurd, it is at times to be faced with the grim reality that could easily be returned if vigilance is not maintained and the stark realism of what has been fought against, corruption, fascist tendencies in all but outward appearance and the stench, the bile rising atrocities that come when profit and greed come before a person’s life.
In many ways Arthur Miller and the Liverpool must have lived together at the hip, whilst New York is very much the theme’s venue, the host in which the grimness plays out, it is to Liverpool that the thought of such treatment meted out to the Dock Workers that captures the attention, for what happens in New York surely catches on in every respect in its British foothold.
The sincerity of writing, the building up division and anger that comes through as the taste of the New York harbour docks and the feeling of sweat mixing with the dampness of the borough air is intoxicating and nestles, burrows like a belligerent mole chucking out unwanted pests from its nest, into the hearts of the audience at the Everyman Theatre. That sincerity of writing is framed by the cast and especially between the outstanding Jamie Sives, whose commanding nature as the man seeking truth and honesty Marty Ferrara was uppermost a portrayal of absolute conviction and Joe Alessi as the corrupt and fraudulent admission of the Dock side management man Louis was a joy to behold.
The quality of such acting, the dynamic between the honest and hot-headed Marty and the shady irresponsible Louis, was made only possible through the sheer volume of industry that encapsulated the whole performance. With an ensemble made out of the local community working tirelessly with the main cast, The Hook is a play of absolute depth and of authorative authenticity, a production in which the indignant anger must rise lest you get swept under the carpet as if your opinions and the might of right don’t matter. Like The Crucible, The Price, A View From The Bridge and Death of a Salesman, The Hook is required viewing and thankfully one that is now able to be seen by British audiences.
A piece of genuine America right here by the beating heart of the Mersey, outstanding!
Ian D. Hall