Originally published on hullfire.com.
Catch the last night of the play on Thursday 8th in Asylum at 7:30pm. Tickets are £5 on the door and £4 in advance.
Hull University Drama Society’s production of Neverwhere takes place on the stage in Asylum but sitting in the audience you will be transported to the weird subterranean world of London Below. The play which is the second production to be put on by the Drama society this semester, along with Dracula, is a weird and wonderful adventure based on a TV show by Neil Gaiman and Lenny Henry. It was adapted for stage by Robert Kauzlaric.
In it the hapless everyman, Richard Mayhew, is transported to another world below the streets of London after performing an act of kindness for a wayward stranger. Door, the mysterious teleporting stranger, is his first glimpse of London Below, ‘a city of monsters and saints, murderers and angels, knights in armour and pale girls in black velvet…a city of those who have fallen through the cracks.’
Once he arrives however he finds that his life above has been all but erased and he is faced with the question of whether he is going to help Door fight against the antagonistic forces that wield power in this strange world. The play includes a number of clever puns relating to London train stations including the Earl in his Court, an Angel called Islington and a group of Friars at Blackfriars.
The Drama society has done a great job here reproducing this fun and epic romp, directed by Caroline McCourt and Sam Bailey. There are stand out performances throughout the cast particularly from Adam Kadowski and William Henshaw as the cunning, nefarious duo of assassins-for-hire, Mr Croup and Mr Vandemar. The whole cast really have put their all into the story and the characters; Marlowe J Davies is very convincing as the unfortunate protagonist caught in the middle of it. Whilst this is obviously a student production on a limited budget, the set design and costumes fit perfectly with the murky, leftover, wasteland feel of the Neverwhere world and add to the atmosphere.
It’s a charming tale that has many positive underlying messages as well as being a traditional coming of age story with a twist. It’s an engaging and funny performance and the enthusiasm and teamwork central to the Drama society is clearly evident. Even an annoyingly persistent curtain that seemed intent on sabotaging its own role didn’t serve to disrupt the magic of the story and if anything only added some extra laughs to an already comical play.
There is still one night left of the performance so you still have time to see it. The final show is on Thursday night in Asylum at 7:30pm. Tickets are £5 on the door and £4 in advance. It’s thoroughly recommended that everyone mind the gap, take the tube and get off at Neverwhere!
Words by Tim Goodfellow
Tim Goodfellow 