Bouncers Essay

BOUNCERS BOUNCERS John Godbers 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 tetrad members in the cast, Godber cleverly directs the performance to be comedic and comfortably understandable through the actors word-painting and clever use of lighting and set. The play takes you through a normal Friday night in town at a club c everyed asylum, which creates a strong reference suggesting it is a place where all the crazy the great unwashed go.It begins with each of the four bouncers individually walking on stage with a solid posture as a Bouncer. Each wizard would wherefore suddenly break out into a dance move the firstborn 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 imbed it hilarious. This is one of Godbers techniques to keep the audience engaged at all times, as jokes are told that the audience understand and can relate to, in the end make the performance more enjoyable for both the actors and audience.The play so continues on to tell the story in episodes due to its episodic structure, closely a group of four girls who are preparing for a night out. Godbers 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 calorie-free to the audience that there was a scene change by introducing the characters they were representing.This is one of Godbers techniques that was influenced by Bertolt Brecht, which is utilise to stop the audience thinking well-nigh what the characters are like and just concentrate on the performance. The lighting amidst transitions in any c ase indicated that there was a scene change, as it would either the full stage would either be brightly lit or dim and more intimate, which is another influence of Brechts, as he would contrast and juxtaposition scenes. I plunge that by introducing the characters, the audience were able to enjoy he performance as they were aeonianly told who the actors were representing and didnt get confused. However, I found that because the characterisation between each of the characters they played was so different and you were able to differentiate between each one easily, the constant introductions were unnecessary. The acting style for all of the actors was very comedic throughout the play. This was portrayed extremely in effect, as their slick comedic timing between lines was fast and sharp making it very humorous.The characterisation of each of the characters also added to the comedy, especially when they were representing the female characters, as their bodies were very relaxed and th ey used exaggerated feminine gestures. Additionally, their versatile use of vocals created fifty-fifty further humour, as they could be loud and raucous lagalads, contrasting to cushioned and gentle women and this created a lot of enjoyment for the audience, keeping them engaged throughout the whole play. Godbers choice of a completely open screen background worked effectively for this type of performance.The entertainment in the play was purely created by actors themselves, and the set didnt detract away from this but emphasised it. By being completely open, the audience are able to see the wide quality of acting the actors could do as they didnt have whatever support from any sort of set. The lighting however, set the scene as much as the actors, as the flashing and changing lights indicated that they were dancing in the club, whereas the solid flickering lights positioned on each actor clearly and effectively indicated that they were portraying a scene on a bus.This scene wa s also clear due to the actors jiggering up and down and miming holding on to a handle bar above their heads. This effective scene was one of my individualized highlights of the play as it was a very clever technique used by Godber and was clearly recognised. My other favourite scene was the hairdressers near the beginning, and peculiarly in that scene one of the actors using their hands and clicking their fingers behind mortals another actors head representing a pair of scissors keen someones hair. I found this extremely effective and easily recognisable.I particularly liked the transition between the hairdressers scene into the barbers immediately after, as all of the actors simply stood up out of character and said neatens, indicating the scene change, and this was emphasised by the physicality dropping from the women into loud and scrambling men. I thoroughly enjoyed BOUNCERS due to its comedy style and the actors excellent acting. As it was very up to date with the choice of melody and clubbing scenes, I could engage with the play easily as it is what I am being brought up around in society at once and this slowed me to enjoy it even further.