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Stars explained: * A production of no real merit
with failings in all areas. ** A production showing evidence of not
enough time or effort, or even talent, and which never breathes any real
life into the piece – or a show lumbered with a terrible script. *** A
good enjoyable show which might have some small flaws but has largely
achieved what it set out to do.**** An excellent show which shows a
great deal of work and stage craft with no noticeable or major
flaws.***** A four star show which has found that extra bit of magic
which lifts theatre to another plane. |
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Suit, ties and no trainers! Bouncers 1990s Remix
Swan Theatre Amateur Company
Vesta Tilley Studio, Swan Theatre, Worcester
**** IT was 38 years to the day earlier this
month that John Godber’s Bouncers, his second play, premiered at the
Edinburgh Fringe performed by Godber and another student from Bretton
Hall College just outside Wakefield, where Godber trained as a drama
teacher. And 66 plays later Bouncers and its remix
offspring are still Godber’s most performed plays. The remix brings the
original series of parodies and snapshots of a single night on the door
of a disco forward 20 years to the 90s, a rewriting, updating and
expanding of the original. The cast of four are asked to play more than 20
characters who frequent the disco and club scene. The result is a funny,
witty and at somehow depressing picture of a night in clubland in just
about every town and city in the country. There are the lads on
the pull with a mission to sink as many pints as they can before going
clubbing filled with lager and lust, then the girls dancing
Then there is Sexy
Suzy, who has sex in the early hours among the rubbish round the back of
the club while eating a pizza – pepperoni if you are into that sort of
thing.
There are punks, Hooray Henrys, stag nights, and
the bouncers themselves, who let in or bar people by a set of arbitrary
rules which bear no relationship to logic and seem to depend on mood. The four at Mr Cinders, the best club in town by some accounts, are led by Lucky Eric played by the ever reliable Keith Thompson who cleverly balances the outward brutal hardness of the bouncer with the sensitivity of the bloke beneath, creating perhaps the only character you actually care about, the only one you know anything about, the one whose wife leaves him and who sits alone all day in his empty flat waiting for something to happen. His four speeches are the only real insight into
any of the characters. We hear of his despair at young girls spending
all they have to go clubbing, getting drunk and be taken advantage off
by men. We hear of his concern at over 25s nights when the lager louts
prey on older women – including his wife – and he tells of a drunken
young girl being taken advantage of in a crowded pub at Christmas and
then of the wet t-shirt nights at the club and how he feels like giving
it all up and going home to listen to Elvis Presley. Eric is a breakdown waiting to happen. Then there is Judd, played by Chris Isaac in the
grimacing angry faced manner Kent Walton would have appreciated as one
of wresting’s pantomime baddies. Judd is two brain cells short of being
a psychopath who sees his role of bouncer as more pugalistic than public
relations, an enforcer rather than peacekeeper. He has a penchant for
pornography and nutting people and has a dangerous habit of goading Eric
about his errant wife at every opportunity. Les, played by Nicholas Snowden is another who
sees his role as bouncer as the bringer of shock and awe upon club
customers and who, as drunken Kev on the pull, ends up in a dance with
Isaac as the very drunk Elaine at the end of the night, when we all
know “only the ugly ones are left”. Elaine wants to keep hold of Kev,
her trophy for a night of booze and dreams, Kev makes his feelings about
her very clear in a vicious explosion of name calling bringing on a
drunken brawl, a common finale to an evening of . . . fun, frolic and
froin' up. Eric reckons Les’s brain is only painted on. Then there is Ralph, played by Michael King, who
doesn’t look like a bouncer and seems too sophisticated and, dare we say
it, too intelligent to be a bounc Guardians of the disco: Lucky Eric (Keith Thompson), right, Judd (Chris Isaac), Ralph (Michael King) and, far left, Les (Nicholas Snowden) As a play it would seem simple to stage, four actors, no scenery so no scene changes and limited props, but that has its own pitfalls in that the actors have it all to do to keep audience interest for an hour and a half or so, not the easiest task in a small studio. But the cast of four manage it in style as the bouncers bored to tears, standing in the cold night air talking about sex, women, porn and violence who switch at the drop of a hat to drunken louts to giggling girls, hairdressers, DJs and a whole cast of characters that make up the vacuous world of clubbing. Helen Tippins, the director, and choreographer,
has added some nice touches and keeps things moving along at a good
pace. Almost 40 years on the bouncers, now a set
schools text, are still giving us laughs and cause for thought at how
little has changed in late night town centres. To 29-08-15 Roger Clarke
25-08-15 |
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around
their handbags who earlier had been giggling about their night of
clubbing to come to celebrate a 21