At the time, people were being swept along by the music of the day such as the Rolling Stones and the Beatles. Those bands were really considered as the turning point in the British way of thinking and many blamed them for how Britain has changed in the last 50 years. The time at which Godber wrote the play makes me delve even more into this idea of Godber wanting to address the drinking culture of Britain. After all, it was not just drinking that he wanted to address. There are many other subjects that branch off from booze like hooliganism in football-, which was as prominent for Godber back then as it is for us today. Teenage pregnancies are another one. Drinking is intrinsically linked with subjects such as this, which make the subject even more important and interesting.
The play is culturally important because it is so English. There are very few countries in the world with the same problems of drink that Britain encounters every year. It is a huge problem that causes death, pregnancies, crime and much more. It is even more prevalent to our country today because of the even bigger problems we face. Therefore when we see that Bouncers has been translated into many different languages, for example, in French they call it ‘Les Videurs’, it makes you think about how a director would change it. If you were going to set about transporting the meaning of the play into different cultures, it would be extremely difficult in my opinion. Other countries in Europe just wouldn’t understand the way of thinking that Bouncer’s puts across. The 16 beers that the lads have in the pubs and clubs might look a bit out of place in a European theatre. That may be why it is not so successful in other, non-English speaking countries- however do have performances which I may go and see in the near future. It is also very evident to me especially, that the humour is very British and would be extremely different to portray and transport to non-English speaking audiences. After all, humour is arguably the most important driving force in the play without in my opinion, it would be quite dull.
However, above all, the social context is extremely important. The play is fundamentally English which addresses some very English issues. When Godber started writing the play the government and the citizens of Britain had really started to try and act due to drink. There had actually been many deaths in Britain, which had forced people to look at the problem of drinking in England. The way in which Godber presents the characters of the play in a very stereotypical manner also adds to this picture of him getting across his image of what Britain is and what it is fast becoming. Godber would hope that many people would come out of the theatre thinking not only about the comedy but about the serious element as well which is exactly what he intended. The comedy persuades the audience to listen but the bigger picture is much more deep. Everyone at the time would have known the serious problems encountered with drink so the play would have raised some serious issues that are not only easy to get across on stage but the audience could relate to them as well.
Personally, I think that the play was as much important in the 80’s as it is now as well. The same problems occur today and the present Blair government is trying unsuccessfully to get rid of this from our society and have the same outlook on alcohol as countries such as France. It doesn’t help our society when we have people like Jordan, Prince Harry and even Ewan Blair getting drunk regularly in the public eye. Whilst we see people like these have an effect on teens today, in Godber’s time he would have seen the beginning of the problems snowball throughout his life. You can only address the problem like Godber has done and bring it further into the limelight; you can’t stop it with one play.
For me, the play is probably even more prominent today than for any other generation beforehand. The problem has really come to a cross roads at which we need to deal with it properly. As Godber shows in the play, it is not really the fact that they get so drunk and out of control, it is the fact that they go out there for the soul reason to get really drunk. He shows us that in order to get rid of the problem, you need to firstly address the way in which people think of alcohol before seeing the next generations outlook’s change.
