WELCOME back Theatre Mill, the site-specific York company that fell silent after the second coming of Witness For The Prosecution in York and Leeds in Summer 2015.

Producer Rebecca Stafford relaunches the company by going to sea with Herman Melville’s Moby Dick in the very much land-locked York Guildhall, where not a drop of water is to be found, save for when the centre of the stage is serving as the bar of The Arctic Whalers Inn.

As ever with Theatre Mill, the atmosphere is established from the moment you enter the building, greeted by supporting cast in costume, to be led to the bar or your seat.

In this case, the performance space is both a theatre in the round and yet traverse too. The centre is a circular deck cum broken hull, with seats and barrels around it, beyond which are banks of seating at either end. It is at once intimate and yet grand, even epic too: as befits Captain Ahab’s crew on his whaler in pursuit of the majestic great white, Moby Dick.

Wood is everywhere: the bar, the seats, the barrels, the trawler/whaler. No, wait; there is no trawler/whaler in physical form. It just feels like there is, aided by the “rat lines”/ladders and ropes; the way the cast moves with the motion of the ocean; the costume designs and seafaring tattoos by Tabatha Grove and the nautical sound effects of the roaring, raging waters by sound designer Joshua Goodman, who doubles as musical director to good effect too.

The play is not a direct re-telling of Moby Dick. Instead, the one-time regulars of the Arctic Whalers Inn, now the ghosts of Hull’s trawler men of the 1950s and 1960s, have gathered to swap stories, as is their custom. This time they will dare to tell one they never told before, Moby Dick, each playing assorted characters as well as recounting their own stories that weave in and out of Melville’s tale.

Wags are calling Theatre Mill “Theatre Hull” because our Yorkshire neighbour is prominent in providing “the talent”. John Godber (who was present on press night) and Nick Lane wrote their adaptation in the Hull Truck days and have newly re-adapted it. Director Gareth Tudor Price is a Truck alumnus too; cast members Fiona Wass (playing the widowed Joan/Ishmael), Fidel Nanton and actor-musician Zach Lee have been regulars in the Truck ranks.

Lead actor David Barrass is a son of Hull, who well remembers the port’s trawling prime, and you won’t see a more committed performance this year than his Maurice/Captain Ahab.

In truth, it is an advantage to have these Hull connections, providing a stable structure for Theatre Mill’s return and a tang of salty authenticity. Joined by actor, singer and musician Michelle Long and supporting actors Bill Laverick and Richard Thirlwall, they create a thrilling, moving, psychological drama of obsession, madness and danger. You see no water, no ship, no whale, but you feel everything.

Theatre Mill's Moby Dick runs at York Guildhall until November 3, 7.30pm, except Sunday at 7pm, plus 2pm Saturday and Sunday matinees. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk