Shakers (with excerpts from Bouncers)

‘Shakers’ - written by John Godber and Jane Thornton in 1985 as a sister piece to Godber’s ‘Bouncers’ - has undergone various re-writes over the years, almost as though it’s a working progress piece.

This Sale Nomads production has a sense of retaining its 1980’s attributes with some of the phrases and comments in the script seeming ever-so slightly out of date for 2017 though many references had been brought up to date and its location uprooted to the North West which is absolutely the right choice for a piece such as this. Should anyone see this play being performed elsewhere in the country you’d be right to hope for the regional dialects to coincide with wherever the piece is being presented as it’s important for the audience to see traits and characteristics of people they face on a regular/daily basis being imitated on stage if it’s to strike the desired result.  

The play echoes ‘Bouncers’ in charting the progress of an evening out, in this case mainly through the eyes of the waitresses at the fictional ‘Shakers’ a (local) cocktail bar, but also through the experiences of their customers, played, of course, by the same four actresses. Mostly these are brief cameos, caricatured and often very funny, with the instant changes of character, class and gender - from the couple struggling to pronounce the items on the menu to the ostentatious BBC producers.

However, the waitresses themselves, though smartly going through the well-rehearsed synchronised manoeuvres as a group, emerge as individual well-defined characters. Each of them regularly step out of the action to deliver a short monologue which gives a context behind her actions and reactions.

The director for this production, Anna Sillitoe relied heavily on physicality and vocal trickery, not even giving the girls a small tweak to their costume to signify which character they’re now portraying, and this stellar group didn’t need such an indication as their physicality, expressions and vocal deception were more than enough to convey who they now were, whilst naturally adding the much-needed extra layer to the written humour.

The girls, as an ensemble, made the play their own as they gave us an insight into some of the characters we come across in everyday life. From checkout girls excited for a night out to a typical lads’ night on the town and posh couples enjoying a meal, each set of characters portrayed were completely amusing and a blatant result of accurate people watching.

The more serious side to the show slots in brilliantly, after being thrown many comic anecdotes we’re hit with something heavier as one of the girls would occasionally step out of the action to enlighten us on troubles that have affected them which were handled incredibly well. The cast members’ abilities to jump flawlessly from one character to another and from such contrasting emotions was impressive. A character acting masterclass exposed.

As for a plot to the piece, nothing much develops, but that’s not what this play is about. In an earlier scene the waitresses discuss how they’ve been instructed to wear hot pant style shorts as part of their updated uniform which provokes a little clash of political ideologies between the girls, but remains unresolved.

The play works well both as a simple piece of entertainment and as a subtler examination of the reality beneath the false smiles of the waitresses.

To top and tail each act, four familiar chaps of Sale Nomads had been given a few highlights from ‘Bouncers’ to present. There was a sense, ever so slightly, that this had been somewhat of an afterthought as we did experience the occasional hesitant moment giving the impression of being a little under rehearsed though the idea to include some of the ‘Bouncers’ scenes was certainly a favourable inclusion which contrasted nicely.  

Plays like this work perfectly well with the performers miming props, in fact, it’s probably a more favourable choice for this style. If you’re going to make the decision to mime props it’s wise to stick to that choice for the entire duration as it does strike as a little peculiar, for visual consistency, to mime a prop in one part then have an actual prop in another.    

‘Shakers’ …and ‘Bouncers’ are wickedly funny glimpses into society and what I love so much about plays like these are how no two productions will ever be the same as they rely so heavily on the individual actors input to shape and create the characters, drawing on each of the actors own personal observations of people and how they behave which makes the piece work – it can only ever be organic.

A very enjoyable production, compliments to all involved.

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