Housebound, Hull Truck Theatre Studio
The elderly couple squabble and argue over the trivialitys and humdrum of retired life, which comes across as a bit one dimensional in the acting at times. Perhaps however that is an intetional insight into the boredom that comes with old age. Jim is bristling with frustration and anger and he makes the Victor Meldrew character look like one of the Laughing Cavaliers; leaving the audience at times as breathless as Lucy is agitated with his constant stream of complaints about everything under the sun.
Jim’s overiding grievance is the demise of his crime ridden neigbourhood and the apparent lack of law and order and with Halloween night fast approaching we see a very touching scene which reveals it is also the anniversary of the death of the couple’s daughter, Annie.
Late at night Jim, on hearing a noise downstairs, disturbs a burglar in his front room and assaults him about the head with a golf club, then locks the burglar William Croft in the cellar, of course Lucy is also woken up and quickly unravels exactly what her husband has done. The burglar turns out to be a 17 year old youth called Ash.
Tied up in the cellar the young lad cries to be released, Jim wants to teach him a lesson and Lucy wants to mother him, with the plot revealling Jim to be the aggressor and a bigoted bully.
Eventually Jims temper boils over and the consequences add a surprising twist to the end of the play.