Reunion, Hull Truck Theatre, Hull, until January 11

John Godber's Reunion is a party piece of a new play at Hull Truck Theatre, not a pantomime for adults in the blue vein of Jim Davidson but an interactive show with saucy behaviour, a karaoke singalong and the chance to boo the bad guy.

Written and directed by Godber, Reunion is a loud collision between three excuses for bad behaviour: the college reunion, the game show and reality TV.

"This retro trip is no ordinary get-together when Big Brother scandal meets Temptation Island turmoil at the party of the season," says Godber. "The night at the college reunion slips into the fantastical and the downright grotesque on national television."

In Reunion, 20 years have passed since novelist and lecturer Jack Wesley last saw his college cronies. Now he agrees to be the latest contestant on Reunion, the prime-time game show that brings skeletons out of the cupboard of love. Jeff must decide whether the girls from his university past are the real deal or merely actresses faking it in a set-up job, and the audience (doubling as a TV audience in the tacky studio of Channel 19) will play their part by waving their Skeleton In the Cupboard cards to decide if Jeff should continue his pursuit of the £50,000 prize. Play the card and out pops a skeleton from the past who, again, may be genuine or a fraud.

"Audiences have really picked up on the reality TV aspect of the show, as they're not only getting a play about reunions but a comment on what we're getting on TV now, so it's two shows in one," says Godber. "When I started looking at the theme of reunion, familiar issues like husbands leaving wives emerged, and I needed a different way to present that, and doing the play as a game show was the way I could ride two horse at one time."

Godber also noted that the play's central themes had a common strand. "You can go back and reinvent yourself and be who you want to be at a reunion, just as you can on a reality TV show, and the play taps into that pernicious side of our character," he says.

He is fascinated not only with the art of illusion on reality TV but our obsession with celebrity status. "I'm fed up with 'Celebrity' anything to be honest, so there's a line where last week's Reunion winner gets to carry out an operation after four days' training as a brain surgeon in a job swap. I think this show is where reality TV will be in 18 months, so it's a satire of a future that's even worse," he says. "But it's also a satire on how TV encourages bad behaviour, and the ironic thing about bad behaviour is that makes good drama."

Given the sceptical humour at work in Reunion, it is no surprise to learn that Godber doesn't watch reality TV. Nor is he a fan of reunions: "No, I'm a great believer in going onwards: keep swimming forward, I say."

Reunion runs riot at Hull Truck Theatre, Hull, until January 11, at 8pm, with a Christmas break from December 23 to January 1. Box office: 01482 323638.

The Reunion tour visits Harrogate Theatre from March 11 to 15; tickets go on sale from next month on 01423 502116.

Updated: 10:23 Friday, December 20, 2002