Bouncers Essay
BOUNCERS
BOUNCERS
John Godber’s play, ‘BOUNCERS,’ was written and performed in the year 1977 and captures the generalised stereotypes of a group of Bouncers, Girls and ‘Lagalads’ on a night out in the town. With only four members in the cast, Godber cleverly directs the performance to be comedic and easily understandable through the actors’ characterisation and clever use of lighting and set.
The play takes you through a typical Friday night in town at a club called ‘asylum,’ which creates a strong reference suggesting it is a place where all the ‘crazy’ people go. It begins with each of the four bouncers individually walking on stage with a solid posture as a Bouncer. Each one would then suddenly break out into a dance move; the first bouncer was able to ‘lock and pop’ really well and as each one came out, the worse they got, immediately connecting with the audience as they found it hilarious. This is one of Godber’s techniques to keep the audience engaged at all times, as jokes are told that the audience understand and can relate to, ultimately making the performance more enjoyable for both the actors and audience. The play then continues on to tell the story in episodes due to its episodic structure, about a group of four girls who are preparing for a night out. Godber’s use of clean transitions allowed the plot to unfold fluently; the only four objects on stage (four beer barrels), were collected by the actors whilst they spoke, and two actors collected a beer barrel each to be placed into the centre of the stage acting as chairs and then would continue on to the next scene, making it clear to the audience that there was a scene change by introducing the characters they were representing. This is one of Godber’s techniques that was influenced by Bertolt Brecht, which is used to stop the audience thinking about what the characters are like and just concentrate on the performance. The lighting between transitions also indicated that there was a scene
BOUNCERS
John Godber’s play, ‘BOUNCERS,’ was written and performed in the year 1977 and captures the generalised stereotypes of a group of Bouncers, Girls and ‘Lagalads’ on a night out in the town. With only four members in the cast, Godber cleverly directs the performance to be comedic and easily understandable through the actors’ characterisation and clever use of lighting and set.
The play takes you through a typical Friday night in town at a club called ‘asylum,’ which creates a strong reference suggesting it is a place where all the ‘crazy’ people go. It begins with each of the four bouncers individually walking on stage with a solid posture as a Bouncer. Each one would then suddenly break out into a dance move; the first bouncer was able to ‘lock and pop’ really well and as each one came out, the worse they got, immediately connecting with the audience as they found it hilarious. This is one of Godber’s techniques to keep the audience engaged at all times, as jokes are told that the audience understand and can relate to, ultimately making the performance more enjoyable for both the actors and audience. The play then continues on to tell the story in episodes due to its episodic structure, about a group of four girls who are preparing for a night out. Godber’s use of clean transitions allowed the plot to unfold fluently; the only four objects on stage (four beer barrels), were collected by the actors whilst they spoke, and two actors collected a beer barrel each to be placed into the centre of the stage acting as chairs and then would continue on to the next scene, making it clear to the audience that there was a scene change by introducing the characters they were representing. This is one of Godber’s techniques that was influenced by Bertolt Brecht, which is used to stop the audience thinking about what the characters are like and just concentrate on the performance. The lighting between transitions also indicated that there was a scene