There is a tension from the off between the tragic and comic in Richard Bean’s drama about the trawler fishing industry. A vessel has sunk off the coast of Iceland. Fifteen men are dead. Their families need to be informed and it is up to the company boss to manage the crisis. Amid the gloom, there are nervy balls of humour as characters swirl through his Hull office.
Set in the mid-1970s, this is a return to the muscular world of the fishing industry for Bean who wrote his award-winning play, Under the Whaleback, two decades ago. This time we see life through the eyes of the capitalist proprietor of a fishing fleet, Donald Claxton (John Hollingworth), who hails from a long line of fishers.
