Mike Bradwell, second from R, with the early Hull Truck company and their Bedford van, early 70s
Unfinished Histories never got to interview Mike Bradwell, but that was partly because he wrote such a wild and wonderful autobiography in The Reluctant Escapologist: Adventures in Alternative Theatre (2010) telling of his career on the fringe from setting up Hull Truck in 1971 as a bastion of popular new writing touring the north (and still going, now building-based) today. It started when he put an ad in Time Out: “Half-formed theatre company seeks other half” and grew from there. It includes his adventures with the out-of-body experience that was the Ken Campbell Roadshow, working with Mike Leigh and running the Bush Theatre for ten key years. See here for further details and here for Michael Coveney’s obituary for Mike in The Guardian
We don’t have a Company page for Hull Truck (or Ken Campbell Roadshow) – if you’d like to help create one (or donate to support the building of one), please get in touch.
If you would like to share your memories of Mike or contribute archive materials, please email Unfinished Histories