Matt Pereira
The playwright’s wit and imagination, the vibrancy of this Guildford Fringe production, the energy of the cast and the innate intimacy of the Back Room of the Star Inn combine to offer a rollicking night out’, says Andrew Morris...
OUR VERDICT
Bouncers is the most popular play in the considerable canon of John Godber, the Yorkshire-born dramatist reckoned to be the third most performed British playwright behind a certain William Shakespeare, and Alan Ayckbourn.
And after watching the Guildford Fringe Theatre Company’s cleverly updated production, it’s not hard to see why Bouncers has endured for 40 years.
Four men in black are the guardians of the seedy Zoo nightclub, somewhere in a small provincial Yorkshire town. Lucky Eric is their jaded, taciturn leader; Judd is intellectually challenged, and seems keen to needle Eric; Les is out to batter someone…anyone; Ralph may be younger but he might just be the group’s voice of reason.
It’s early in the evening, and quiet by the Zoo cordon. But with a shimmy of the hips and a blast of music, the four stony-faced security men morph into handbag-toting, lippy-daubing, shot-swilling young lasses in search of a good night out.
A spin of the heels and here are four lads, pre-loading like there’s no tomorrow and talking a good game, desperate to pull before it’s just the fat, sweaty girls left at the end of the night.
The energetic four-man cast plays more than 20 characters, as they also bring to life some of the bouncers’ previous exploits. But each one is believably different, through the nuance of accent or demeanour, and a real tribute to actors Gareth Davies (Lucky Eric), Martin Allanson (Judd), Sam Stay (Ralph) and Shaun Blaney (Les).
Some of the language may not be for the faint-hearted, and the image of used condoms around the back of the club at the end of the night looking like a bunch of Smurfs will linger long in the memory. But Bouncers also has continually relevant social messages from Mr Godber, told largely through Eric’s heavily signposted four solo speeches to the audience.
All the deprived northern working class have to look forward to is spending their wages getting slaughtered at the weekend. And Eric might be conflicted, admitting to being highly sexually aroused as he watches six young lads assault a drunken 18-year-old in a pub, before sorting them out: ‘the first head was hard, but the rest felt soft as I smashed them into a wall.’
The playwright’s wit and imagination, the vibrancy of this Guildford Fringe production, the energy of the cast and the innate intimacy of the Back Room of the Star Inn combine to offer a rollicking night out. Congratulations to all the cast, to Director Harry Blumenau and to Guildford Fringe Theatre Company for not evicting any of the audience.
Right, I’m off for a kebab…
Venue: The Back Room of The Star Inn, Guildford
Dates: June 03-08, 2019, Mon-Sat 8:00 pm; Jun 08, Sat 3.00 pm
Ticket prices: £18.50 (£17.50 concessions) + booking fee
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