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
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