AT four o'clock every Saturday afternoon from 1976 to 1988, tens of millions of Britons, and countless more worldwide, were in the grip of an extraordinary sports phenomenon: watching two fat men "pretend" to fight each other.
The hit show Big Daddy Vs Giant Haystacks will tell their wrestling story at Selby Town Hall on September 13 as one of the theatre highlights of the newly announced autumn season.
This "British heavyweight champion comedy" by the writers of New Perspectives’ hit play Those Magnificent Men, Big Daddy Vs Giant Haystacks brings back to grunting, grappling life two battling behemoths, Shirley Crabtree and Martin Ruane, and the bizarre world they bestrode.
Ross Gurney-Randall, winner of the Brighton Fringe Award for Best Male Performer, and David Mounfield, fresh from Sky’s cult sitcom This Is Jinsy, perform this ambitious, touching two-hander with a supporting “all-star cast of thousands”. Dickie Davies, Paul McCartney, Chris Tarrant, Frank Sinatra, Princess Margaret and Greg Dyke all pop up as Gurney-Randall and Mounfield seek to conjure up a whole nation during this colourful era.
From big, bouncing men in the wrestling ring to the big men on the nightclub doors in John Godber's hellish vision of 1980s' urban nightlife, Bouncers, presented by Reform Theatre in association with Harrogate Theatre at Selby on November 7. Director Keith Hukin will be joined in the cast by Lee Bainbridge, Kivan Dene and A.N. Other for Godber's physical comedy, set in the Friday disco world, where bouncers Judd, Ralph, Les and Lucky Eric invite you for a fright-night on the town, albeit on their terms.
Amid the tatty, glitzy glamour and flashing lights, Godber's bouncers introduce you to the smooth-talking DJ, the lager-swilling lads, the lipsticked, lacquered girls and numerous nightlife creatures, gyrating to the pulsating beat of the dance floor.
Yorkshire company ReformTheatre have brought such shows as Mark Whiteley's Burt'n'Joyce, Nick Lane's Housebound and John Godber's Thick As Thieves to Selby, and now comes Godber’s best-known work, voted by the National Theatre as one of the 100 greatest plays of the 20th century. Be warned, the language is as strong as the door staff.
On November 12, Selby Town Hall welcomes The Hundred Years' War, a new poetry-theatre piece that uses 40 poems composed around war from 1914 to 2013 as the basis for a moving portrayal of lives under fire.
"The chaos and cruelty of war has, for centuries, inspired some of the world’s most wonderful poetry, from Georg Herwegh, through Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, to the likes of Michael Casey and Brian Turner," says Chris Jones, Selby Town Council's arts officer. "In this show, three performers, live and recorded music and striking images are all combined to create a heart-wrenching drama whose every word is charged with poetry."
The Hundred Years' War is a partnership between Bloodaxe Books, Midland Creative Projects and the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, and its Selby show forms part of Northern Accent, a new series of literature events across Yorkshire’s Small Venue Network.
All three of these shows start at 8pm. Doors open at 7.30pm and tickets can be booked on 01757 708449 or at selbytownhall.co.uk
Charles Hutchinson
WITH JOHN GODBER FILE PIC
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