Writer: John Godber
Director: Jane Thornton
The problem with Bouncers is that it is so very much of its time. 40-odd years on references are more difficult to pick up and the ground-breaking style is no longer so ground-breaking. Yet audiences clamour to see it again. Only some four years after the last tour Hull Truck Theatre was pretty much crammed for a matinee performance and audience amusement was considerable, if not quite as hysterical as in years gone by.
It’s interesting to note the changes that Godber makes as the years pass. On the previous tour the play ran for 100 minutes stage time; the 2023 version runs for 85, yet it’s the additions that one notices: the rhyming “that’s how it was” introduction, for instance. The posh public school types seem to be a casualty of the shortening and maybe all the clips of songs and little dance steps have been cut down.
The major change this time is the change of director. Jane Thornton takes over from Godber, but keeps the precision of moves and rapid-fire changes, though possibly lightening the tone a little. It remains very much a family affair, with John and Jane’s two daughters involved in the production. Familiar faces from previous runs include Graham Kirk (set and lighting) and two of the actors, Frazer Hammill (Lucky Eric) and Lamin Touray (Judd).
Essentially the four actors play three separate groups of people – the bouncers, four eager girls and four tanked-up lads – with constant switching between them and all sorts of secondary characters such as the hairdressers. The evening ends sadly, as they knew it would, for the lads and the girls and in a gloomy watching of a blue film for the bouncers.
The synchronised speech works as well as ever, but have we seen the line-up of lads in a urinal with a selection of old favourite lines (pretty ancient when Bouncers was new) often enough now? Certainly, however, the split-second characterisation of Hamill, Touray, Tom Whittaker (Ralph) and George Reid (Les) is as impressive as ever. All have their quirks, but it’s Lucky Eric who is the heart of the play. Four times – formally introduced by his mates – he makes a speech that suggests both the tragedy of the young people’s lives and his own. Hammill’s downbeat delivery, such a contrast to the expansive style of most of the play, strikes a responsive chord.
In these days of “Door Staff” is Bouncers archaic? Not yet, but for a play that depends so much on the audience’s recognition of the familiar that day will surely come.
Runs until April 29th 2023.
