Sully review - Yorkshire Post, May 2006

Sully, Hull Truck Theatre, Hull
Nick Ahad

AS material for his first play, Hull journalist Dave Windass has chosen a dead cert.

The story of a beloved Hull legend, told at Hull Truck where audiences are wildly appreciative, Windass could harldy have failed.

Except that he could.

He chose to tell the story of Clive Sullivan, Sully, the black kid from Wales who played rugby league for both Hull FC and Hull KR - and captained Great Britain to the World Cup.

Despite the enormous goodwill to the play, palpable both outside and inside the theatre before the performance begins, had Windass done anything but justice to his memory you feel he would have been hanged. Fortunately for him, he succeeds in doing justice to the man's story.

A play that has wit, energy and an abundance of heart, Sully tells the remarkable story of Clive Sullivan. Now best known to a generation as the name of the road in and out of Hull, an older generation remember him as one of the city's sons of whom they are most proud.

Windass puts two characters, Chelle and Max, on the Clive Sullivan Way, stuck in traffic after a serious crash.

A mysterious figure appears from the mist, holds out his hand and says "Clive".

When Fidel Nanton enters as the eponymous hero of the story, something ripples through the audience. Nanton doesn't look like Sully. Then he opens his mouth and utters that one word - at which point he wins everyone over in an instant.

Nanton's enigmatic, gentle yet powerful Sully is brilliant to watch - as are the performances of Lee Green as Max and Natalie Blades as Chelle - plus myriad other characters. Both act with an enthusiasm that seems to characterise Hull Truck actors - they enjoy themselves on the stage as much as the audience in the seats.

The fault with Sully is that Windass is understandably daunted by his subject and afraid to leave anything out.

It gives a feel of a play filled to bursting, rather than a streamlined beast - the play's ending would have benefited from a good 10 minutes of trimming.

It is also massively parochial and, while outsiders may understand the jokes about the different areas of Hull, they are unlikely to "get" them.

That said, the incredible story of Sully and its themes are universal enough to tug at everyone's heart strings. This play deserves a revival - maybe not outside Hull - but it would be a shame if this week was the last audiences saw of it.

Sully review - York Press, May 2006

Review: Sully, Hull Truck Theatre, Hull
by Charles Hutchinson

SULLY deserves the kind of long run that winger Clive Sullivan MBE made so often in his rugby league pomp with Hull FC, city rivals Hull Kingston Rovers and Great Britain.

Hull journalist Dave Windass is still earning his play-writing wings but this week's sell-out run of Sully is evidence of his talent for emotional, humorous writing with the common touch (in the Hull Truck house style, yet distinctive too).

The Robins (Rovers) and Airlie Birds (FC) fans sit side by side, just as they did at Sullivan's memorial service after he died of cancer at 42.

Sorry for blowing the ending, except that the end is the beginning to a play with plenty of twists in the tradition of the flying black Welshman's running style.

Martin Barrass and Gareth Tudor Price's triumphant production opens with the traffic at a halt on Clive Sullivan Way after a crash. Taxi driver and FC fan Max (Lee Green) and his fare, East Hull chav and young mum Chelle (Natalie Blades), are cursing each other and their luck when the ghost of Sully (Fidel Nanton) emerges to reclaim his road.

(You may recognise the strip of tarmac from Hull Truck's previous show, John Godber's Men Of The World, in the ultimate example of an economy drive.)

Sully says he will help them if they help him to re-enact his life story: his childhood in the only black family in Splott, Cardiff; his calcified legs that should have curtailed his career before it started; his World Cup triumph as GB captain and his Challenge Cup successes.

Windass captures Hull rivalries and local colour with a knockabout wit that rises above the locale, while he reconstructs Sullivan's highs and lows with a Hollywood sense of melodrama, swelling music and back projections.

Nanton's performance will move big men to tears of joy and sadness; Blades and Green are winning comic foils. They warrant the granting of three wishes: the speedy return of this wonderfully evocative play; a statue for Hull's favourite adopted son and, just maybe, a screen drama of Sully's remarkable story. As he proved, all things are possible... except a remedy for the congestion in Clive Sullivan Way.

Sully review - Hull Daily Mail, May 2006

Pride of Hull
by Dale Haslam

As a Mancunian living in Hull, I am always curious when the locals take a swipe at their fair city in one breath before waxing lyrical about how much they love it the next.

So I was surprised to learn a trip to Hull Truck Theatre could give me not only an education about the area's past, but also an in-depth understanding of how proud Hullonians are of their sporting heritage.

Sully tells the story of one of Hull's most famous sons (via the Welsh valleys, of course) - 70s and 80s rugby league legend Clive Sullivan (played by Fidel Nanton).

I wondered how the cast could use such a small stage to recreate an animated tale of heroic rags-to-riches sporting glory played out across acres of green land at the Boulevard and Craven Park, where Sullivan scored an incredible tally of 350 tries.

But co-directors Martin Barrass and Gareth Tudor Price did a superb job. With just three actors, a few props and wonderful improvisation, they turned Dave Windass's tale into a chuckle-a-minute thrill.

West Hull taxi driver Max (Lee Green) and his east Hull passenger Chelle (Natalie Blades) are frustratingly stuck in traffic after an accident on Clive Sullivan Way. In a bizarre twist of fate, they come across the ghost of the great man Sullivan himself.

They reminisce with him about his glory days in the black-and-white hoops of Hull FC and the red-and-white colours of rivals Hull KR.

From humble beginnings in a quaint Welsh village - when Clive and his three siblings were known as the "flying Sullivans" for their breathtaking pace - to a career on the field with the two Hull clubs and off it with the RAF, Sully takes the crowd on a whistle-stop tour of a lifetime of talent and triumph, but ultimately of torment and tragedy.

With comedy tinged with drama and even a dash of audience participation from the more vociferous rugby fans, the show certainly stirred the imaginations - and memories - of those looking on.

And strong performances from all three actors helped make it a real winner.

Sully review - Illuminate/Dig Yorkshire, May 2006

Hull Truck's trademark sparcity means the set is literally a strip of concrete road and the cast is made up of only three actors, all of which adds to the power and intensity of Dave Windass's new play.

Lee Green and Natalie Blades are excellent and work hard playing dozens of supporting roles, but the night belongs to Fidel Nanton and Clive Sullivan. It must be one thing to play a fictional character, but quite another to take on the part of someone real - a local hero - in his hometown, where his family and friends are still living. Directors Martin Barrass and Gareth Tudor Price don't let us forget how larger-than-life Sully was, projecting video clips and photos onto the back of the stage throughout. Nanton tackles (sorry, couldn't resist it!) the mammoth task with a quiet but commanding stage presence, moving the audience from fits of laughter to floods of tears.

The first half is hilarious, with lots of Hull 'in-jokes' that would probably be lost on an outsider, as the play follows Sully's rise to the peak of his rugby career. But you know what's coming, and there's almost an anticipatory bracing of backs as you sit down for the second half. Writer Dave Windass doesn't shy away from the tragic last stage of Sully's life, and Fidel Nanton is given a final soliloquy that barely leaves a dry eye in the house. Having said that, there are still lighter moments, such as when the audience responded with panto-esque boos and hisses as Sully changed in and out of Hull FC and Hull KR shirts!

Definitely see it if you're from Hull or a rugby league fan (if you're both, then this could be your perfect night out) and if you're not, it's still more than worth a look.