If you thought an adaptation of Moby Dick marks a change of direction for John Godber, artistic director of Hull Truck and director of this production, you'd be wrong. The theatre is the ideal place to stage a new adaptation of Melville's cetological classic. In the early 19th century Hull was at the centre of the British whaling trade, and Godber, with co-writer Nick Lane, locates the action in a local pub, where a small group of old Hull fishermen re-enact the hunt for the great white whale. Godber and Lane reduce Melville's leviathan-length novel to its essential elements, stripping away the documentary digressions and whale-related trivia to tighten the focus on Ahab, the demonically driven sea captain who lost his leg to Moby Dick and now sees the whale as his implacable destiny.
It is no surprise that Godber, who has created a vast corpus of plays about the male ego going into overdrive, is attracted to this figure. Dicken Ashworth's terrifying Ahab conceals spiritual uncertainty beneath a mask of aggression. Ashworth succeeds in creating a fatally flawed character who combines the bad luck of Oedipus with the charisma of Captain Hook, and would not be out of place guarding the door in Bouncers. Godber has witnessed countless local Ahabs being thrown out of the pubs in Hull every Saturday night - figures whose boiling aggression and unfocused anger form the subject of his plays. And to such a great exponent of physical theatre, who once recreated an entire rugby match on the tiny Hull Truck stage, choreographing the salt-licked adrenaline of a whale-chase is no problem.
Godber even replicates Melville's jarring medley of styles, ranging from biblical prophecy to salty seafarer's slang. He bolsters the narrative with passages of mime, monologue and modern dance - although I was not entirely convinced of the congruity of the jitterbug routines.
Big books adapted for the stage often sink without trace. It is a credit to Godber's version that, like its subject, it covers a huge amount of ground in 90 minutes without pausing for breath.
· Until June 29. Box office: 01482 323638.
