Bouncers
By John Godber
Burton-Taylor Theatre, 13-17.05.03

In my life I have done a few things of which I am embarrassed. I won't bore you with the details here, but suffice to say that most of these have been due to drinking. I am sure that many of you reading this will be able to sympathise. For those of you that do, Bouncers tells a story of something that will be familiar to you: a night out on the town. We follow three groups throughout the evening: the boys, the girls and the bouncers, all played by the same four actors on an almost bare stage. And if you are anything like me you will see echoes of your own actions unfurl before you.

The evening starts in the hairdresser with the girls catching up on the gossip. Quickly the action relocates to the pub, where we try count the drinks with the boys. We hear from the DJ at the club, and hear some of the inner thoughts of "Lucky" Eric, one of the bouncers with a little more upstairs than the others. The night moves on through drinking and dancing, heartache and ruined mascara before reaching a climax, of sorts. For a play that was written nearly 20 years ago, this is depressingly close to the reality of Saturday night now; the only aspect which makes it seem dated is the lack of mention or use of drugs.

The actors are constantly on stage, and constantly switching between the 12 main characters. With no costume changes to speak of they rely on caricaturing to distinguish between the roles. Thankfully they often re-introduce themselves as they slip into a new role, making it a lot easier to keep track of who's who. This is obviously very demanding for the actors, but despite this, all of them played their range of characters well. In particular, they all portrayed very believable drunks; I am sure they researched these roles thoroughly!

The only flat note was in Lucky Eric's monologues. I felt that there should have been more emotion in these moments of contemplation, and a little more time invested in them to give them the weight needed to balance the unthinking acts that make up the rest of the action. The play moves along at a fast pace, lasting a little more than an hour. While this does help to convey the necessary sense of immediacy, it also makes it feel rushed. We hardly have a moment to take in what has happened before we are swiftly moving on. Some of the humour definitely suffers as a result (I am sure that I missed a few choice lines).

Overall a good production - I laughed and went away happy - but like the average night out on the razz, you probably won't remember it for long.

Keith Ibsen, 13.05.03