BOUNCERS
Reform
Theatre Company and Harrogate Theatre
at the Civic
Theatre,
Chelmsford
09.10.2014
Unpredictable
audiences and clever tweaks manage to keep this 30-something show
fresh and enjoyable.
The
idea is simple – four middle-aged men in black tie [the Bouncers of
the title] cast a weary eye over the night-life,
and, at the drop of a hat, and without any pretence at disguise,
assume the persona of clubber, lad, hairdresser, drunk and toff. It's
a tour de force of physical theatre and social comment, and this
simple formula has kept the show in the public eye ever since Godber
relaunched
it
for Hull Truck in 1983.
Reform,
directed by Keith Hukin, have brought it to the Civic before, six
years ago. The audience then was rowdier; this time out the big,
philosophical speeches by Lucky Eric [David Walker] are received in
pin-drop silence. But the youngsters packing the stalls laugh long
and loud at the coarsely bawdy bits [blue movie, urinal line-up],
performed with relish and consummate skill; Kivan Dene's turns,
including a repulsive DJ, are especially fine.
Simply
staged [beer kegs and white handbags the only props] and brilliantly
lit, the ensemble work is relaxed but precise, the production
carefully paced. The enthusiastic audience will feel they've had a
good night out, with food for thought served up alongside the basket
meals.
and for The Public Reviews
Bouncers,
the 80s hit show that spawned Shakers, Stags and Hens and many lesser
tributes, is a classic now, up there with Macbeth and Neville's
Island on the GCSE syllabus. So the stalls are packed with the
“Children of England”, amused at being frisked by the “door
staff”, bemused at this warts-and-all version of an “80s Urban
Night”.
It's
a different world, and not only because, despite the cheeky
name-checks, it's set somewhere north of Watford.
The bus ride into town, the basket meals, the barber's shop with its
Vinnie Jones cut, the girls with their white handbags, even the video
shop and the blue movie, all now extinct. The bouncers themselves
seem like dinosaurs, their gorilla arms brushing the ground, innocent
of multi-cultural Britain and diversity training.
The
quartet from Reform do a brilliant job – the trademark physical
theatre is text-book stuff [let's hope the students were taking
notes] and they move in a moment from the coarsest comedy to the
deepest introspection.
“All
human life is, inevitably, here.” And all magicked up by these
versatile middle-aged men: the boys – lad culture avant
la lettre
– and the girls with their ritual preparations for a Friday night
chez Mr Cinders. Pre-loading not yet invented, they check their
make-up and their breath before catching “the bus at the end of our
street” and queuing to get past the seen-it-all-before,
turn-a-blind-eye bouncers.
Excellent,
and impressively energetic, ensemble work throughout,
with a few stand-out turns: the demon barber [Lee Bainbridge],
pathetic
little birthday girl Rosie [director Keith Hukin], and the creepy DJ
[Kivan Dene], now undoubtedly awaiting Yewtree trial on historic
charges
…
David
Walker plays Lucky “The King is Dead” Eric, by far the most
interesting of the bouncers, with his Brechtian soliloquies
beautifully done, as he casts a jaundiced eye over the exploitation,
the loss of innocence - “the firedoors tell their secret stories”
- and, Lonesome Tonight, weeps to see his ex-wife at the over-25s
disco.
Undeniably
popular with the kids, the sequence in the gents, and the Swedish
Postman porn, seem excessive [and both feature the same offensive
weapon], the Michael Jackson moment merely self-indulgent.
That
apart, Reform's Bouncers
remains the yardstick touring production, a screamingly funny satire,
tinged with tragedy. At the end, the lads queue, unfulfilled, for a
taxi home, and the bouncers are left to wonder why, staring out over
the city lights and envying the everyday, ordinary lives behind the
towerblock windows.
