About
the Play:
Bouncers was one of Royal National Theatre of Britain's top
100 plays of the 20th century.
Bouncers has long been a favourite of acting teachers for Male Monologues and Male/Male Scenes.
Bouncers is a full-length comedy by John Godber.
Bursting with imagination and wit and presented by just four actors,
Bouncers is about hope. Hope that fills singles bars night
after night. Lucky Eric, Judd, Les and Ralph, the bouncers of the
title portray over twenty different characters between them. We see
them as giggly girls and lads on the make preparing for the big night
out as we follow their Friday night social ritual.
Bouncers is a classic comedy that takes a sardonic look at Friday night fever among
the idle youth of a north British industrial town. Staged with
extreme simplicity, the play condenses an evening out with four men
and four women, each group unaware of the other. In the face of
circumstances that make it unlikely anyone will meet the man or woman
of their dreams that night, the character's optimism, nevertheless,
never fades. Although eventually drunk, stupid and nearly broke, they
find something sustaining, at least, in each other's company. In
control over all are the local club's four bouncers, Lucky Eric,
Judd, Les and Ralph, hardened, cynical and unhappy. Working without
props, dressed in black tie and evening jackets, four actors play not
only the formidable bouncers and youthful revellers, but also the
loose-knit story's female foursome and some 20-odd incidental
characters. Written in the late-1970s, when Eric Burdon of the
English rock group The Animals sang I've Got to Get Out of This
Place, he was talking about this kind of life. Retaining all the
'charm' of that era, yet still every bit as relevant and relatable
today, Bouncers is a telling portrait of all the excesses of
the clubbing scene and the beginning of what is now called the
binge-drinking culture that litters the streets and headlines today.
Bouncers was first produced in 1977 at the Edinburgh
Festival. A London hit which went on to a record-breaking run in Los
Angeles and a successful presentation in New York City, the play was
nominated for Comedy of the Year in 1985 and won seven Los Angeles
Critics Circles Awards and five awards in Chicago in 1987. Bouncers
has stood the test of time with many a famous face taking on the
iconic script as well as schools across the UK and beyond studying
the piece.
Cast: 4 male
What people say:
"Godber doesn't dress it up or
take it down. It's blue-collar rutsville, and his language is
colloquial, smart-assed and knowing." — Vancouver
Province
"Consistently entertaining."
— Evening Standard
"Bouncers is
brilliant." — Daily Mail
"Bouncers is one
part Marx Brothers, one part Three Stooges, one part John Osborne and
one part Monty Python." — Los Angeles Daily News
"Hip, outrageous, delirious,
demented. Choose your superlatives, but don't miss this tribal rite."
— Los Angeles Herald
"This is a courageous and
vital piece of theatre." — LA Weekly
About the Playwright:
John Godber, OBE, is a multi award-winning English
playwright and dramatist. His many plays are performed across the
world and he is said to be the second most performed living English
playwright, and third of all time (coming only narrowly behind
William Shakespeare and Sir Alan Ayckbourn). With his wife Jane
Thornton, also known as Jane Clifford and Jane Godber, they are
arguably the nation's leading acting-writing-directing married
couple. The former school teacher has been creative director of the
Theatre Royal Wakefield since 2011 and set up the John Godber Company
as its resident company.