"I think the recession is over in the south east. They said there would be cuts but we wouldn’t feel it for two–and–a–half years as city councils would massage figures and hold back money. Now we are realising those libraries and museums are closing.”

John Godber’s April In Paris was originally penned as a cost–effective two–hander for his Hull Truck Theatre at the height of the 1991 recession.

Godber, then artistic director of the theatre, starred alongside his wife Jane as couple Al and Bet whose relationship is struggling after Al was made redundant – until shoe–shop worker Bet wins a romantic night in Paris.

This revamped and reworked version stars Coronation Street and Dinnerladies star Shobna Gulati and The Upper Hand’s Joe McGann.

“I didn’t want it to feel like a 22–year–old play,” says Godber, admitting the surge in UKIP’s popularity had meant Al’s suspicions about Europe didn’t feel that out–of–date.

“At the time the original play was performed in the West End a critic in The Guardian said everyone had been to Paris now, but that couldn’t be further from the truth for a lot of people.

“Paris is still another planet. In Hull unemployment is still high, we’re waiting to see what the City Of Culture will bring.”

The changes he has made for the tour, which he is also directing, are more to do with the cultural references the couple make.

“Joe and Shobna are both much older than I was,” he says. “I had to change their status so their family has left home, leaving them together rubbing along and irritating each other.”

One thing that hasn’t changed is the way the pair have turned bickering into an art form.

“They are a very likeable and believable couple,” says Godber. “My father–in–law once said that a relationship where there are no arguments means that someone is getting too much of their own way. If there’s no bickering there’s a problem somewhere.”

Much of the couple’s travel experience is limited to the North Sea Ferry to Zebrugge, before hitting the city of romance – a journey which many travellers from Hull would be familiar with.

“You spend 14 hours on a boat and one night in Paris,” he says. “When people get to Paris they realise you can either go to see a tenth of everything, or the whole of one thing before it’s time to go home again. It’s about getting a taste.”

Indeed Al goes from being reluctant to set foot on foreign soil to turning into Marco Polo on his return home.

“It’s like Pandora’s Box – you travel and see these things, but you can’t put it back in your head when you come home,” says Godber.

“It’s like a lot of clubs in the 1980s which started to model themselves on Ibiza, because people who went away wanted to relive the same experience in their local club.

“Al isn’t interested in going to see Dracula’s tomb in Whitby any more, he wants to go to the Andalusian mountains or Peru. It’s part of the joy of the play.”

April In Paris may be a revived Godber classic, but it doesn’t mean the playwright has stopped adding to the 62 plays he has already penned. There is a national tour of his 1990 skiing comedy On The Piste on the way, and he is currently developing a new play about Puccini.

“My mum used to ask: ‘Why are you writing another play?’” laughs Godber admitting the uber–prolific Alan Ayckbourn is something of a role model.

“I used to tell her ‘You wouldn’t say that to a heart surgeon.’”

--

April In Paris

Theatre Royal Brighton, New Road, Tuesday, July 22, to Saturday, July 26

Starts 7.45pm, 2.30pm matinees Thurs and Sat, tickets from £10. Call 08448 717650.