Hull’s not everyone’s cup of tea. The northern city, best known for fishing, has consistently been voted one of the worst places in Britain. Indeed, it was voted number 1 in the original ‘crap towns‘ survey.
Not everyone thinks that, though (indeed, it’s going to be 2017’s City of Culture). Rather fabulous UK playwright Alan Plater (The Beiderbecke Affair et al) wrote a typically wry and semi-loving look at Hull in the 1973 Play for Today Land of Green Ginger. Named after a street in Hull, the play sees its heroine Sally Brown (Gwen Taylor) having to deal with the prospect of being sent abroad to work. So she returns home from London to Hull to see if she still feels the same attachment for her home town – and for her old boyfriend. Will she decide to take the job abroad or return to live with Mike in Hull?
The play shows us Hull through Sally’s eyes, giving us the good and the bad, just as she sees both the good and the bad in the city. It also gives us folk music from The Watersons. Whether that’s your cup of tea might well determine what you think of the play. Enjoy!
