About John Godber: Hull Truck Theatre's Joint Artistic Director

John was born the son of a miner in Upton, West Yorkshire. He trained as a teacher of drama at Bretton Hall College. Whilst he was Head of Drama at Minsthorpe High School, the school he attended as a student, he won every major award at the National Student Drama Festival between 1981and 1983. In 2005, John’s 50th play Wrestling Mad marked his 21st anniversary with Hull Truck as Artistic Director.

John’s plays are performed across the world and he has the distinction of being one of the most performed writers in the English language. He has won numerous awards for his plays including a Lawrence Olivier award and seven Los Angeles Critics Circle Awards. His plays include: Bouncers, Un ‘N’ Under, April In Paris, Teechers, Blood, Sweat and Tears, Cramp, Happy Jack, September In The Rain, Salt Of The Earth, Passion Killers, Happy Families, Up ‘N’ Under ll, Gym & Tonic, Dracula, Lucky Sods, Hooray For Hollywood, Weekend Breaks, It Started With A Kiss, Unleashed, Thick As A Brick, Big Trouble In The Little Bedroom, Season In The Sun, on A Night Like This, Our House, Departures, Men Of The World, Reunion, Screaming Blue Murder, Black Ties & Tales, Perfect Pitch Going Dutch, Christmas Crackers and most recently Crown Prince.

Within his extensive career in writing and directing in TV and Film, John also devised the BBC2 series Chalkface and his screenplay My KingdomFor A Horse starring Sean Bean was nominated for an alternative BAFTA award. John’s first feature film Up ‘N’ Under was released in January 1998. In 2005, he co-wrote Odd Squad for BBC 2, with his wife Jane, which was shot in Hull using local actors. Odd Squad won two British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards in the Schools’ Drama category and in the BAFTA original writer section.

John has an MA from Leeds University, an Hon D.Litt from Hull University, an Hon D.Litt from Lincoln University, a D.Uni for the Open University and was a PHD research student for five years at Leeds University. He is a Professor of Contemporary Theatre at Liverpool Hope University, a visiting Professor of Drama at Hull University and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

BOUNCERS FACTS

• The original inspiration for Bouncers was Kiko's in Pontefract - the only Polynesian Nightspot in Yorkshire with the bonus of fake palm trees around the dance floor.
• On average, BOUNCERS is performed at least 8 times a year by small to mid-scale repertory venues, and is toured at least twice a year by various companies. Anywhere you go in the UK, whichever theatre you visit - you can bet they've produced the play at some time in their recent history.
• Overseas, it still doesn't lose it's edge with productions and tours in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the USA .
• If the posters are to be believed, the very first performance of BOUNCERS was 15th August 1977, 12.30pm as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, when the 21 year old John Godber performed a two hander with Peter Geeves (the orange Tang man). Tickets cost an astronomical 50p. This first showing had a massive audience of two, a critic from the Scotsman and a Scottish drunk. The critic left after five minutes and the drunk stumbled on stage for a little impromptu performance of his own.
• The Bouncers performed the Bouncers Rap (to the tune of the Sugarhill Gang's "Rappers Delight") on the Tube to a very bemused looking Jools Holland in 1984!
• Warner Chappel who hold the rights for amateur productions in the United Kingdom say that there is at least one production of BOUNCERS every week of the year and that is always in the top ten, alongside or Arthur Miller's Crucible and various Ayckbourn plays.
• Bouncers has been described by Lynn Gardner, of The Independent as "The Mousetrap of the Fringe".
• Bouncers (winner of no less than seven Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards) has an enduring national and international appeal. It has been translated into many different languages including Flemish, Swedish, French, German, and Italian. It has been staged in Belgium, France, New Zealand, Australia, Norway, South Africa, Italy, Spain, Russia, Canada, America, Ireland, Germany and the Isle of Crete.
• Celebrity fans of Bouncers include, Stephen Spielberg, Jack Nicholson, Joan Collins, John McEnroe, Tatum O'Neal, David Steel, Eddie Murphy, Judge Reinhart, Hale & Pace, Phill Jupitus and the legendary US rock band, The Grateful Dead, have seen it three times!
• Famous Bouncers have been Jack Coleman (Dynasty' Steven Colby), Mark Addy (The Full Monty, The Thin Blue Line), Richard Ridings (Tom Jones, Up 'n' Under), John McArdle (AKA Brookside's Billy Corkhill, After Hours), Adrian Hood (Lloydy in Preston Front, Norman in Victoria Wood's Dinnerladies), Iain Rogerson (Bernard in Hetty Wainthropp Investigates, Jeff in BBC's Blooming Marvellous), Chris Walker (The Bill, The Fix, Playing Away), Michael Wattam (Uncle "Can't give Booze t' baby" Peter of Reeves & Mortimer fame).
• The first review of BOUNCERS to appear in a National paper was written by Michael Billington in THE GUARDIAN 28th September 1984. He said "Mr Godber and company have evolved his own distinctive style which says something about the tinny, tacky, curiously barren-quality of disco culture"
• By 1990, BOUNCERS had played to at least 50,000 people at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
• At the 1996 Edinburgh Festival, there were four different productions running simultaneously. One of these was an all-female version by students of the University of Wolverhampton. Godber himself gave the production his seal of approval before allowing the performance to go to Edinburgh.
• The piece transcends all city and cultural divides. In Manchester it carried the "Manchester Sound" of The Stone Roses, Happy Mondays et al. Liverpool gave it its own Mersey beat and the Sheffield Crucible had an irrepressible "Steel City Mix". Because it is set in the ephemeral twilight of Friday night, Bouncers is constantly reinventing itself, to suit.
• Bouncers' official birthday is 15th August, 1977 at 12.30pm.
• The very first professional production was by the Yorkshire Actors Company at the Rotherham Arts Centre, 25th March 1983.
• Bouncers in French is "LES VIDEURS", in Dutch "BUITENWIPPERS", in Serbo-Croat "IZBACIUACI".