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“The play’s longevity must partly be explained by the fact that each staging seems less like the production of a play than the re-enactment of some primal ritual. Although the music and some of the references have been updated…..Bouncers survives because the urge to drink, fight and reproduce is never likely to go out of fashion. There is always a rush for tickets, or as in the words of the men in black, you’re not getting in.” The Guardian
Originally premiered in 1977, Bouncers, the Remix version, was updated by John Godber in 1991 portraying as much a social commentary as it is an incredibly well written, hilarious comedy.
It’s Friday night, it’s club night at ‘Mr. Cinders’ – a northern nightclub – and four brutish bouncers are on the door. The bouncers are both themselves and everyone they meet during a night out at the club.
In this up-dated version we meet giggly girls, lads on the make, pogo-ing punks, and a smooth talking DJ, all set against the tatty, glitzy glamour, flashing lights and pulsating beat of the local night club.
Of the multiple award winning plays by Godber, this is his most performed work, the one that made the National Theatre’s list of the top 100 plays of 20th century and is now a school set text.
This non-professional production is presented by arrangement with Music Theatre International on behalf of Josef Weinberger Ltd. www.mtishows.co.uk | www.josef-weinberger.com
This production uses flashing/strobe lights.
The play contains strong language and mature themes.
The running time is 1 hour 35 minutes including an interval.
Director's Notes
John Godber was born the son of a miner in Upton, West Yorkshire. He trained as a teacher of drama at Bretton Hall College. Whilst he was Head of Drama at Minsthorpe High School, the school he attended as a student, he won every major award at the National Student Drama Festival between 1981 and 1983.
Godber’s plays are performed across the world and he has the distinction of being one of the most performed writers in the English language. Godber has won numerous awards for his plays, including a Laurence Olivier Award and seven Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards. A prolific writer for TV and film as well as his iconic plays, Godber has also won 2 BAFTA awards. Originally premiering at the Edinburgh Festival in 1977, Bouncers is still one of the most performed plays in the UK today and is named as one of The National Theatre’s ‘Plays of the Century’.
Bouncers – hilarious, vulgar, frenetic and highly physical, the play has become an international sensation, gathering awards from around the world. Bouncers – The Remix (updated by Godber to be set in the 90s rather than the 80s like the original Bouncers) is eye- wateringly funny, celebratory and as relevant today as it ever was. The play takes us back to the glorious highs when disco was king, and everyone lived for the weekend. Like a hideously funny Saturday NightFever, Bouncers is more a social phenomenon than a play. The audience is, as is typical with Godber, challenged directly to consider the “correctness” of what they are witnessing as the bouncers act out all the scenes of a typical Friday night for youngsters in the early 90s. Vulnerability, consent, peer pressure, respect – is it any better now for today’s teens/20-somethings than it was in the 80s, or the 90s? You decide.
Celebrate good times, Come on!
But if your name’s not down, you’re not coming in! BOUNCERS, they only come out at night.
Lorna Middleton
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