British playwright John Godber’s BOUNCERS is a very funny play. The audience was laughing continuously through the performance. Director Maggie Scott has done a wonderful job in getting the versatile actors to deliver a constant barrage of humorous insights and comic parodies.
Four bouncers, dressed in dinner suits, bow ties and wrap around sunglasses give a running commentary on the young people’s pub & disco culture in Manchester on a Friday night. The themes are universal and it could be set in any place with a pub culture and young people going out at the end of the working week.
The actors, Cramer Cain, Andrew Mead, Matthew Stewart and Paul Wilson, also impressively adopt the personas of the young people getting ready to go out and later are seen participating in the drinking, dancing and crude flirting of the teenage and young adult characters. Early on they are the girls at the hairdressers telling each other how wonderful they look and then bitching behind each others’ backs. In the next scene they are the young boys at the barbers boasting and putting scorn on each other. They are funny, accurate and poignant portrayals.
The bouncers do not escape criticism either. They are shown as ignorant, cruel and homophobic but also at time very decent and full of humanity. Cramer Cain’s character Les attempts to point out that homosexuals are just normal people but ends up, under threat of violence, having to say he knows this because he knew a guy who once worked in a club for gay people.
The bouncers are happy to have a go at anyone that is not in their clique. College rugby boys are ridiculed. Cocky youth are tormented because they are young or ethnic. Girls selling themselves for five minutes of fame with the DJ are held in disdain.
There are lots of funny and sad moments. In one scene a girl is blubbering because her boyfriend of two days is cheating with another girl at the disco.
The dance scenes are incredibly funny with lots of references to popular video culture. The sound, lighting and set design is simple and effective, especially the use of dinner jackets and sunglasses as versatile props.
I cannot think of a better venue for this entertaining drama than a pub. BOUNCERS runs at the Cat and Fiddle Hotel Balmain until Sunday 1st April, with performances Thursdays to Saturdays at 8pm and Sundays at 6pm.
© Mark Pigott
Tags: Sydney Theatre Reviews- BOUNCERS, John Godber, Cat and Fiddle Hotel Balmain, Insomniac Theatre Company, Maggie Scott, Cramer Cain, Andrew Mead, Matthew Stewart, Paul Wilson, Sydney Arts Guide, Mark Pigott.