Working on 'Bouncers' by John Godber - responses to the script and workshopping, developing and shaping of ideas creatively

When first reading through the script of one of John Godber's most famous comedy plays Bouncers, I was immediately attracted to the simple, dry and comical conversations between the bouncers, the majority being quick, one sentenced bits of dialogue to fulfil a play that is fast paced and comical. I especially liked the way that John Godber portrayed a certain sense of thickness and lack-of-intelligence-and-common-sense within the bouncers when speaking to eachother - Judd: I got a basket meal for nothing yesterday. Eric: when? Judd: yesterday.  There was a lot of this sort of conversation between the bouncers throughout the play where the characters were just being plain thick towards eachother and having an atmosphere of awkwardness over their communication - which was very enjoyable to work on as it really shows just difficult it is for these bouncers to hold a normal, 'everyday' conversation with eachother. 

One of the other elements of the script and play itself that I liked very much, was how John Godber scripted the actors to play so many different characters in such a short space of time to convey comedy and fast pace, constructing the play as theatrical and almost in a cartoon stylised way. These aspects of the play and script will really come as an advantage to an audience as the multi-rolling and the fast pace, cartoon-like essence of it, will have strong effect audience members to engage them and feel the comical mood and atmosphere of the play throughout, making bouncers a performance that is enjoyed by both audiences and actors, and creative teams working and performing the play. 

We workshopped a lot of ways in effectively getting across this multi-rolling element if the play and how we can strongly initiate changes between the different characters, going along with the obvious techniques of physicality of characters and voices of the different characters. The script does a very nice thing where at the majority of the different character changes and the shifting of scenes throughout the play, the new characters (ones that have been changed into) introduce themselves with their name and, for the girls especially, a short description of their various personalities so that audience can get an understanding of one, the character changes and the contrast within that change,  and two, an understanding of the new character to be played - which can also be very helpful for the actor when portraying this character multi-rolling. 

But when workshopping ways in which we could further show a change in character, we focused a lot on physicality (body language, how the walk/stand/sit, actions etc) of the different characters and also voice, and how the voice of an actor is a vital technique to focus on when working on character multi-rolling. We wanted to have a way of showing the switching of characters that is clear to the audience and comical at the same, and allows the change in voice and physicality to link in nicely with it. We workshopped lots of different ideas, before deciding the best, including walking off stage as one character and coming back on as another, through various movement e.g. Turns, jumps, bending down, crouching etc. After workshopping lots of different ways, we found that walking on and off would be distracting and more importantly time wasting which will lose the attention of the audience. Movements such a jumping etc. we found, were too everyday-like movements which I actually realised we do a lot within the various characters, so it would of becoming confusing and also not as obvious to audience members. However, when workshopping the turning idea we found that it was very effective as the turn would symbolise a change in body language, voice etc and create a whole new different character. The process of the turn would be the transformation from one character into the next. I found this the most effective way in characterizing and representing the multi-rolling and initiating the changes and switches between the different characters, because it was obvious, easy, comical - as it is unexpected - and has an essence to cartoon style to it. 

John Godber's various different characters within Bouncers are interesting because the different character groups - lads, girls, bouncers - and the odd separate characters included in the play to convey this essence of a night out in a Northern nightclub, are all so different to one and another, and so entirely contrasting. This is a very big advantage when it comes to keeping our audience engaged into the performance because if the different character were all very similar to eachother in personality, being and essence then an audience would get rather bored as when seeing the change and switching in characters, they would expect complete contrasts between the different characters to be much more enjoyed by the performance as a whole. The script also shows that the conversations between the different groups of characters are very stereotypical - e.g. Lads- girls, sex, drinks etc. Girls- clothes, boyfriends, hair etc. Bouncers- the job, interests, experiences etc.  Having this aspect in the script can really help the actors get into their different characters and can be very comical, enjoyable and nostalgic for audience members.

To summarise, my overall response to the script of John Godber's play Bouncers is that it is audience-engaging - either when reading it or watching a performance of the play. I love the mixture of simple conversation, speeches of various characters, and monologues of thoughts and feelings and portraying emotions from some of the different characters. 

The stage directions are clear and detail - and with a play where one of the main elements is multi-rolling between lots of different groups of characters - clear and detailed stage directions are vital and very helpful in rehearsals. 

The play is fun, comical, inappropriate, but rather serious and true at times, making the whole essence to it and whole play itself enjoyable for audiences everywhere - really conveying the main essence of the play, being the typical night-out experience to a nightclub with giggly, bitchy and party girls, loud, drunken lads, other night-club goers and a smooth talking DJ and many other comical characters involved with a nightclub night out (preparation or other goers)... All from the point of veiw and perspectives of 4 down to earth but awkward, comical bouncers working at the club.