Just A Quickie with Alice Bartlett, the first woman to direct John Godber's Unleashed.

John Godber first staged his play about a group of Yorkshire businessmen giving their sexual appetites the green light in Amsterdam's red light district seven years ago. What will a female director bring to the party?

"Hopefully honesty. It's a play with male sexual instincts and drive but what's interesting, as you get to know the play better, is that the women exploit them.

"When you go out to Amsterdam, you find it's pure glitzy showbiz: the prostitutes are in your face and proud of what they're doing. The men have their urges and the women are happy to provide their services.

"A woman director can make the women in the play harder and the men more pathetic, you can hold up the hoops and decide to jump through them or not, and we're definitely making it nastier. Maybe women are less afraid to do that."

How come?

"It's difficult for a man to direct that nastiness. I know that John Godber felt they held back, where they could have been more nasty, and dirtier, when Hull Truck first did it."

What did you learn on your research trip to Amsterdam?

"We found a walking tour run by Amsterdam Prostitution Information, which was very factual and it got to the point where I thought I want to do this'!

"What they've done in Amsterdam is lock themselves off from the morality that we're constipated by. The women will do 40 men on a good night and they say there's no way they would be doing it if they didn't want to. Their pride was very striking and they were almost challenging you, saying we're prostitutes, tell us what's wrong with that. We're good at what we do and we make good money'."

What strikes you about the men in the play?

"It's interesting that it's the men who feel bad. Their guilt is awful. They get giddy with sex beforehand, but then there's the morning-after hangover where they're thinking what have I done?'.

"Most people will recognise that. It's a hard-hitting piece, humorous, but also dangerous and dark because it deals with issues that make people feel awkward; and sex is in your face throughout the play.

"It's the theatre of cruelty, and without the comedy it would become extremely uncomfortable."

What made you choose Una McNulty and Daisy Martin for the female roles?

"I was looking for women who wanted to have fun with it, who would enjoy it and feel powerful as opposed to feeling exposed.

"The play is all about power. It's the spider catching the fly as the women weave their web."

Unleashed runs at Hull Truck Theatre, Hull, until September 23, 8pm; box office 01482 323638. Please note, strictly adults only: strong language; explicit content.