JOHN Godber gone, Gareth Tudor Price gone, Hull Truck Theatre could ill afford to lose the third player in its creative axis that gave this no-nonsense theatre its distinctive personality.

Godber protégé Nick Lane has had to take a change of job title on the chin – goodbye associate director, hello literary manager – as new chief executive Andrew Smaje applies his version of feng shui to re-invent the Truck brand.

It remains Hull Truck, not Hull Range Rover, however, and I sincerely hope that the theatre that has done so much to nurture Lane’s writing and directing talent will remain his domain.

He may best known for his fantastical, low-budget, street-culture reinventions of children’s fairytales but his adult writing is becoming ever stronger, both in his original works, such as Me And My Dad, and in his literary adaptations. His version of Orwell’s 1984 affirmed he could do the heavy as well as the light, and he pulls off a similar feat with DH Lawrence’s under-the-covers classic.

For the purposes of this touring production, he has streamlined it to a three-hander. It turns out to be an artistic as well as practical decision, because he presents Lady Chatterley’s Lover as a love story, a menage a trois.

Sir Clifford Chatterley (Frazer Hammill) has the burden of assuming control of Ragby Hall after the Great War that has left his body shattered and his brother dead.

He loves his bride, but Lady Chatterley (touring debutant Amie Burns Walker) needs... well, you know the rest.

“A woman has to live her life, or live to repent not having lived it,” is how Lawrence put it. She finds what she needs in the arms of gamekeeper Mellors (Karl Haynes).

“Would you allow your wife or servants to read it?” was the nub of the banned book’s notorious court case, and Lane has interpreted this as Lawrence breaking the chains, demanding a freedom to express yourself.

Born to privilege and position, Sir Clifford addresses the audience from the start, telling us “this play is memory and memory follows its own course – like love”. It takes their actions to free first Lady Chatterley and then Mellors to follow suit.

Lane makes one other key decision: no distracting nudity or titillation. He favours fully-clothed eroticism instead.

Sir Clifford “looks on” from the side, all too aware of what is happening out of his sight. “I knew all along,” he screams at the end.

Lawrence’s infamous colourful language has an airing too but is introduced gradually and in Mellors’ mouth it is sensual rather than shocking.

Graham Kirk’s set gives no sense of the liberation of the woods but does evoke both Mellors’ workplace and the stymied clutter of the hall, while the burn marks on the floor suggest the frustration of Sir Clifford, stuck in his wheelchair, and maybe something a little earthier too!

Good performances all round ensure Nick Lane has made his mark again and long may he do so.

Lady Chatterley’s Lover, The Studio, Hull Truck Theatre, Hull, until Saturday. Box office: 01482 323638.