The Stage

Hit Me! The Life and Rhymes of Ian Dury

Published Monday 27 September 2010 at 10:40 by Victor Hallett

A large portion of the audience are obviously there to see Ian Dury and, thanks to a terrific performance by Mark White, that is exactly who they see.

Mark White (Ian Dury) in Hit Me! The Life and Rhymes of Ian Drury at lwyd Theatr Cymru, Mold Photo: Steve Ullathorne

This isn’t a play that fights shy of reproducing its subject’s rasping singing/chanting style, but neither is it a tribute show. White manages to make Dury’s charisma manifest and he sings up a storm. He also brings out the singer’s anger as well as his often appalling behaviour, particularly to those closest to him.

But you can’t help warming to the man. I shall long remember the uncontrollable smile that plays across White’s face whenever Dury is reminded of some particularly rancid episode. It’s that of a naughty boy conscious of being told off yet remembering his behaviour with pride.

But this journey through an awkward crippled life is not a solo show. Ex-con Fred “Spider” Rowe, hard man, minder and friend, is brought to magnificently foul-mouthed life by Josh Darcy. His tales of tours, of German hotels, of good times and bad and a particularly vivid one of a prison experience, provide the play’s narrative backbone and allows the songs to grow out of a particular time or event. His Janet Street-Porter imitation has to be seen and heard to be believed.

This often funny, sometimes uncomfortable, always ferociously energetic play is gripping and entertaining. And Mark White’s portrait of a man who took what life threw at him and threw it right back at an adoring public is electrifying.