I like the way in which Godber has the bouncers in a flat line, facing forwards to the audience at the beginning of the play. This, like many other points in the play is a great opportunity to use some music. This would not only help to get the audience involved in the action but it would quickly introduce the bouncers as ‘hard men’. Many different melodies and chords can be used at many times during the play to tell the audience without using speech, what the traits of characters are. You could just tell the actors here to walk on like big, muscular men and slowly introduce themselves. However, as much I can see the possibilities here, I feel that it can sometimes become a little still and lifeless. Taking this into account, you could use some music such as the ‘Space Odyssey’ and have each character slowly walk on like boxing champions entering the ring. Obviously, they would refer back to normal behaviour when people start to come into the clubs, but I think that at the beginning of the play, this is a better option. It also helps show the audience right at the beginning of the play, they are watching bouncer’s with attitude- the whole concept of having a comedy feel to it is grasped here as well. For the audience, this would add a feeling of actually being with the actors on stage.
Godber writes the character of Eric as the odd one out of all the bouncers. He is more caring and sentimental than the others, which is seen when he makes his three longs speeches. Therfore, I think that for these speeches, the director could use a spotlight on Eric and have his voice echoed around the theatre to create an air of Eric giving the audience his innermost thoughts. This would also help to show how jumbled up his mind is at the time. The other characters could be seen just talking lazily to each other without a real care about what Eric is saying. After all, underneath Eric’s ‘jumbled up’ state, he does actually say some worthwhile things. By having the other bouncers arranged like this, the audience could see how detached Eric is from the rest of the group and it could show how he really wants to get away from them. You could even go so far as to have the other bouncers spotlighted in a sea of red whilst Eric, the most moral of them, talks in a wave of light blue. This would help the audience to identify Eric’s detachment from the rest of the group and his caring nature.
Godber’s inspiration for the play comes from a club called Kiko’s in Pontefract. This is quite a corny place with palm trees on the dance floor and other such things. You can really see the likeness of this corniness with that of the play in general. We see this being especially evident in the disco scene at the beginning of the play when the DJ says:
“Yeah! Wow! Things are really happening down here tonight… yes a pair of knickers and a bra, there’ll be a bottle of Asti Spumante and a fortnights free entry, get it? Entry. To Mr Cinders.”
This speech epitomizes the way in which the play is performed and written. Taking this into account, I would say that the lighting and other effects would have to be done in a very clichéd manner in order to get across this appearance to the audience. For the disco scenes I would have some music such as ‘Abba’ playing along with some very colourful disco lights to add to that 70’s image of the disco. It really depends on whether you want to update the play in any way into the 21st century or keep it the way it is. After all, a lot of fashion and music tastes have drifted away since then and some of the younger members of the audience could get lost in the action. However, in my opinion, the play loses something if it is set in our time. This change of decade only really applies to the scenes in the disco anyway.
Godber didn’t really have a fixed stage set up on which for directors to perform it. The fundamental picture that people have in their minds is of just a blank stage with a possible disco ball hanging from the ceiling. This is really the best thing to do because there are so many different scenes and characters. It means that the audience can’t get confused between different scenes. If the director really found this to be a big problem, he could just have a small black out in order to show when each scene finishes and the next one begins. With no costumes, the effects such as lighting become more and more important for everybody- not just the audience. Opportunities for lighting in the play are enormous. It could be used anywhere to add something extra. For example, when Baz starts urinating out of the window at the end of the play, some strobe lights and amplified sound could be used to good effect to show how chaotic it is in the taxi.
Spatially, the stage set up helps each character. Although there would not be anything on the stage, the actors need to divide the stage into different areas in order to show which character they are playing. For example, in the disco scenes, the lads could be chatting away on one side of the stage whilst the girls could be on the other creating quite a funny view of the ways that guys and girls look at each other.
Aurally, all of the characters would need to change the pitch and tone of their voices for each different part they play. They would also need to make sure that they do not fall into the trap of speaking too quietly when they are playing women with quite soft voices or bouncers with very gruff menacing ones. They still need to be able to project their voices to the very back of the theatre for each part. Microphones could be used here to help the actors if they really needed them, but I would advise against it. In a lot of plays, music plays a fundamental part, but this is even more the case in ‘Bouncers’ than in any other. For example, when Judd and Eric are arguing about him being ‘soft’ a slow rise in some dramatic music could be heard in the background. The director could even choose some ironic music in the form of something like a sound of an out of tune violin, building up and up in pitch (like the squawking violins in the film ‘Psycho’). This would emphasize once more the way in which Godber writes seriousness and comedy side by side. Music could also play a part in the interlude. The corny DJ could come out and try and get some of the audience playing more of a part in the action as if he is talking to them as his audience in the club. This would mean that the audience get more involved, and in turn they are encouraged to engage with the actors and feel more comfortable with them. If this was incorporated into the play, the audience wouldn’t feel as though there is a break up of the night and it would run smoothly through (after all, it is not a very long play anyway). The director could even consider not having an interval at all and just a longer blackout.
