Bouncers and Shakers

Bouncers and Shakers or should I say Shakers and Bouncers as they were presented on the night is a comedy companion set of plays. As John Godber say ‘The play is often attributed to me, but in truth it was in every way a collaboration between myself and Jane Thornton.’  In fact, ‘the collaboration was an attempt to produce a play for women which had the same sense of excitement, the same visceral energy and calls upon the audience’s engaged imagination as its bigger brother Bouncers.’ The plays together take a sardonic look at the nightlife in the north, set initially in the 80’s, where the ‘Shakers’ are cocktail waitresses and the ‘Bouncers’ provide the security in a nightclub.

The stage is set to double as a typical night club and a cocktail bar with bricked walls, a bar stage right and four stools which were well used during both performances. The walls were decorated with some posters. The red and green lights in Shakers added to the club land atmosphere and the disco lights were an appropriate addition. The four spotlights added to the menace when the Bouncers were lined up at the front of the stage. The sound was set at a good level and the speeches could be easily heard over the well sourced disco tracks.

The costumes were well worn by both groups with the hot pants adding another level although I’m not sure they would have been worn over trousers. I presume this happened to demonstrate the look and to save a costume change.

The Shakers cast of four actors had a difficult undertaking because all of them spent the majority of the act on the stage interacting with each other. They each had a central role which involved them individually delivering a heartfelt monologue to the audience about aspects of their lives.  In addition to this role all four created a variety of cameo roles both male and female ranging from TV official’s wo are at the club for happy hour to a 21st birthday party and young couples on their nights out. They also demonstrated how although they all completed their jobs with a smile, they hated the tiresome patronising customers who made tedious innuendoes. This included the management whose expectations were questionable.

The Shakers Adele, Carol, Nicki and Mel had many gritty subjects to cover during the play. They transferred between characters with clicks of their fingers. I’m sure this enabled the audience to realise that all or some of them were embodying new characters. The script was very wordy and the actors used physical movement and accents to demonstrate the many characteristics of their various personas in the club.

Their respective soliloquies were all spoken in a quiet measured way under a spot light. Carol was urging others to achieve something and not to waste their education and lives to men. Nicki spoke about her longing to be an actress and demonstrated this until her audition. Adele talked with feeling about her love for her teacher which led to an unplanned pregnancy and the resulting abortion and Mel showed in her own sarcastic way how she was disaffected by life. Congratulations to all.

The second half saw Ralph, Judd, Les and Lucky Eric taking on the roles of the shorter Bouncers. They have their own tales to tell based on supposed toxic masculinity they were expected to portray. Like their female counterpoints they personified the lives of punters who entered, or tried to enter the club. They switched effortlessly between their roles as the club bouncers, in their own spotlights to lads out to have a great time, giggly girls, hairdressers and blue movie starts all set for a night out in or outside the club.

The clever character personifications could be seen by the members of the audience. All four men like the women, created their own various roles using their physical movements and voices.  Lucky Eric, portrays quite a sad character whose home life is not what he wants, he emanates an air of menace but you feel he uses weight training to focus himself. The delivery of his monologues relating to the women and young girls’ attitudes and actions were poignant and discomforting. His quiet delivery added to reality of the subject. Judd appears to be a wind-up merchant a brute with no brain he takes great joy in pushing Eric’s buttons. He made a wonderful woman. Ralph used his physical presence to intimidate and tried to control others and avoid conflict situations and Les who attempts to dissipate situations between Eric and Judd who displays a broad-minded attitude towards gay men. One little comment if you are set under a spotlight, it is a good idea to ensure your movements do not take you out of beam of your light. Congratulations to all four actors involved.

It was an agreeable touch at the end of the play when the Shakers joined the Bouncers for a final dance. A fitting conclusion to the production.

Whilst Bouncers feels the funnier of the two plays it was good to see the contrast provided by the Shakers, a more female dominated world.

I feel these plays were a team effort from everyone involved. The actors, producers and all the other members of your team. Thank you for an entertaining evening’s production.

Disclaimer 

Any observation made by the reviewer can only be based on what he sees at the performance in question.  The reviewer may have received information in advance of the performance and it is inevitable that his assessment will be affected by that knowledge. 

The NODA Representative’s intention is to give an objective critique of the overall production and in particular, the performance.  It should be remembered that any review of this nature can only be objective as far as the techniques used during the performance observed.  Any criticisms expressed may not have been valid at other performances and are only made to encourage higher standards in Amateur Theatre. 

 It is hoped that the audience’s appreciation of your efforts will have given everyone a lift and encouraged you to greater achievements in the future and that the observations made by the reviewer will prove helpful in improving future productions.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.