Review: Bouncers

 

After the recent broadcast of the Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham drama Adolescence on Netflix, there is an urgent conversation taking place at the moment around masculinity and misogyny in society. Questions about the role models young men and boys have (or choose) to look up to, the damaging influence of peer pressure, and the toxic expectations of what qualifies as masculine behaviour are very much in the spotlight. And so it’s in this context that the Pump House Theatre Company present their production of Bouncers by John Godber. It feels a very timely and prescient examination of the masculine stereotypes of the decades gone by.

The play is set in and around a 1990s Wakefield nightclub called Mr. Cinders. Although a fictional nightclub, it’s rendered very realistic by the myriad period references to booze, music, swearing, fashion and disgusting bathroom habits. Although the original Olivier award-winning comedy was set in the 1980s, Godber updated the piece for later performances and has ironically created through a comic lens a searing slice of social realism. The interaction of the bouncers is full of laddish humour and banter, but underneath the jokes  lies an ever pervasive threat of genuine danger and imminent violence.

The lead bouncer Lucky Eric (played by a commanding Russell Stratton) is a faded lion of a man. Once majestic and one imagines unchallenged in his authority, he is now constantly jibed and undermined by the young pretender Judd (played with a swaggering confidence by Connor Davey). Lucky Eric has got a sense of control, insight and nobility afforded him by his frequent speeches direct to audience, but his thin armour is quickly penetrated. His is quick to anger and his rage easily prompted. It's this sharp defensiveness which is so frighteningly apparent as a typical male reflex in this microcosmic 'manosphere', but we get a glimpse through Stratton's acting as he worries away at his ring finger while contemplating his divorce, that it actually masks a tender fear of his own vulnerability.

All four of the bouncers are wonderfully realised. Dale Carpenter's Les is apparently affable at first sight but hides a thirst for violence, letting blokes he dislikes into the club with the specific intention of battering them later in the night. Ralph, played by Russ Clancy, is perhaps the most balanced of the four; ironically the character training in martial arts seems the least inclined to fight.

A strand of comedy comes from the fact that the four bouncers play all of the other characters. There’s a brace of lads who are out on the lash keen to have a brash night out, and a gaggle of girls celebrating a birthday and looking for a fun time. The sharp contrast in the characteristics between these groups is a rich source of comedy.

This is a thought provoking play as well as a funny one. It reminds us that we’ve come a heck of a long way from the 1990s in terms of our social attitudes. The casual misogyny and homophobia littered throughout the script is a chilling reminder of how society viewed minorities and those who didn’t conform to social expectations of the time. But it's also a timely reminder that progress is hard one and hard kept. There is always the risk of moving backwards and if we don’t take care, we could see some of those positive social liberations expunged in the not too distant future.

Bouncers runs at the Pump House Theatre until Saturday 12th April. Tickets available here.