Hit Me: the life and rhymes of Ian Dury – Everyman, Liverpool
Writer/Director: Jeff Merrifield
Reviewer: Tim Stone
The Public Reviews Rating: 
It was the late seventies and while I stuck to the more conventional easy listening groups, my brother, a year older introduced into our house ‘alternatives’ including an album called New boots and panties. Even I couldn’t fail to appreciate the raw, hard-edged lyrics and the ‘crazy’ beautiful music (mainly Chaz Jankel), that sometimes just didn’t sit easy on the ears. This was my introduction to Ian Dury.
The play features two characters (although Janet Street Porter makes a ‘brief and side splitting appearance’); Ian Dury (Mark White) and his one-time minder and tour manager Fred ‘Spider’ Rowe (Josh Darcy). We are treated to reminiscences and incidents to take us through the life of Dury from his upbringing, through to his ‘success’ years and then to his demise. The action is fast, rough, crude, funny, but ultimately extremely entertaining.
White is the third Dury to play this character in Hit Me we are informed and his vocals are outstanding. He is excellent and I get a sense of a great relationship with his co-star that comes across to create the close but fraught relationship between the one time minder and his boss. However, I found White’s character a little too ‘nice’ and smiling, lacking the visual hardness, where I sense the real Dury had the words “bitter” running through him, like a stick of rock; with sarcasm and egotism as part of his makeup. For Darcy the task was easier, for less is known about ‘Spider’ and he could put his own interpretation on his character without comparisons and he does so superbly. Like Dury, Spider did not have an easy formative life, but whereas ‘the star’ continued to struggle to live in the world (especially one he had created) Spider learnt to cope and walk away when times got to tough and Darcy portrayed this with brilliance.
The set is basic; mainly the home of Dury that always gives the impression of being squalid; and that suggests that Dury, despite the fame never moved on materialistically, or mentally. The action is swift and keeps the audience alive, while the music is loud and ‘in yer face’. I personally felt that during the first half of the play that the songs were cut too short; after all music was what Dury was known for. I also believed that for an instant at the end of the play, they had blown the whole play with a deviation away from what had been seen; but a rousing Hit me with your rhythm stick pulled the play back onto course and drew the majority of the audience onto their feet.
There are some parts that are (as one of the beautiful quotes said) “Jeckyll and Hardy”. But for sheer entertainment, don’t miss this fantastic adaption (unless you object to swear words). I’m now off to buy my own CD of New Boots and Panties.
Running until 12 November
Tags: Everyman Theatre, Hit Me: The Life and Rhymes of Ian Dury, Ian Dury, Janet Street Porter, Jeff Merrifield, Josh Darcy, Liverpool, Mark White
11:50 am on November 10th, 2010
I went to the Everyman, Liverpool last night (Nov 9th)to see this play. It was excellent. The portryal of Ian Dury was fantastic and Mark White’s voice was so realistic you would have thought it was Ian Dury himself if you closed your eyes. The swearing was necessary to put across a character that was colourful and at odds with himself and the world. Brilliant!
11:03 pm on November 11th, 2010
I’ve just got back from seeing this brilliant production at the Everyman. Mark White captures the essence of Ian Dury that had me hooked from the first time I saw him on TV when I was a teenager and which still has me hooked in my fifties! No holds barred, certainly, but a stunningly accurate portrayal of Ian Dury in voice and mannerism and a great support in Josh Darcy.