Men Of The World, York Theatre Royal, February 9 to 13 (From York Press)

Men Of The World, York Theatre Royal, February 9 to 13

11:49am Friday 5th February 2010 in

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HULL Truck Theatre Company are on tour, fittingly enough with a play about coach drivers. The company will be stopping off at York Theatre Royal from Tuesday until Saturday.

John Godber’s bitter-sweet Men Of The World is built round coach drivers Stick, Frank and Happy Larry. While preparing for a mystery trip to Scarborough, the trio remember more exciting trips from the past, such as the last one, down the Rhine Valley to Heidelberg.

Stick hates his passengers and wishes he was doing the Spanish run instead. Larry is a Mario Lanza fan who’s been making trips for as long as anyone can remember and Frank is their female counterpart.

Sarah Parks, who plays Frank, says the long-suffering drivers have seen it all and done it all. She says: “It’s funny, sad and a total evocation of a bus trip.

“My character is there to keep the peace between Stick and Larry. It is a great show and may be a rollicking good comedy, but it is also poignant. I think it tells the plight of pensioners these days; how they get by on very little and yet it is a celebration of how they make the most of things.

“This is a play about an age group that is not catered for enough, one that deserves to be heard. It’s about time we paid them more attention.”

Sarah can recognise some characters in members of her family. Diplomatically, she doesn’t say which ones.

“I suppose my favourite character is an old miner called Len. We all play across the genders and he is a wonderful character. He’s one of three miners on the trip who’ve worked bloody hard all their lives and just get on together in a spirit of hard work and a hard life. There is a great honesty about Len.”

For Sarah it will be like coming home. She went to the Mount School and has fond memories of York. “I saw my first play at the Theatre Royal. It is a very special place; you are extremely lucky to have it.”

Performances are 7.30pm with a 2.30pm matinee on Thursday. For tickets, priced from £10, phone 01904 623568.