Table service: Sophie Bullivant, left Laura Castle and Abi Carter in Shakers
DEATHLY ghost tour host Jamie McKeller picked John Godber’s Teechers Leavers ’22 for his return to directing after 15 years last March.
Fresh from playing an Ugly Sister in panto, McKeller heads back to the Jo Ro with another rotten state-of the-nation Godber comedy, this one a husband-and-wife collaboration with Jane Thornton.
Two cast members from McKeller’s 2023 production return to the Rowntree Players ranks for Shakers, his pantomime co-stars Sophie Bullivant and Laura Castle now being joined by Abi Carter and Holly Smith.
McKeller has plumped for the 1987 version, not the 1994 musical with 50 per cent new material, nor the 2010 edition with a cast of five, nor the 2022 remix, Shakers: Under New Management!.
In the mix: Holly Smith, Sophie Bullivant, Abi Carter and Laura Castle making cocktails in a promotional shot for Rowntree Players’ Shakers
This is Shakers at its most raw, showing its dark Eighties’ roots like a bleach blonde hairdo, but resonating all the more in our age of zero hours contracts and #MeToo.
Like now, Thatcher’s Britain was an era of fears over losing your job and a them-and-us culture of division. Furthermore, some things never change, whether men treating women as meat or the boss demanding his cocktail waitresses show ever more leg.
In this unruly sister to Godber’s boisterous Bouncers, the multi-role-playing template turns the northern nightlife focus from the nightclub door staff to the cocktail bar shakers and stirrers: overworked, underpaid and prone to squabbling in a whirlwind of sticky floors and sticky situations.
Bullivant’s feminist Carol, Castle’s volatile Mel, Carter’s working mum Adele and company newcomer Smith’s brash Niki face the Saturday night shift from hell: seven hours beneath the neon lights, in shirts tied at the waist, black trousers and white pumps.
Laura Castle in a phone conversation in Rowntree Players’ Shakers
Fast, fizzing physical theatre, with minimal props and a minimalist set design of only four bar seats and four mini-bars on wheels in matching colours, is the performance style.
Another Godber trademark is omnipresent too: plenty of direct address to the audience, here concentrated in the stalls seats nearest the stage to lend McKeller’s production an intimate, studio atmosphere.
Mirroring Bouncers, the quartet plays myriad Shakers clientele: four lasses on a 21st birthday bender; leery lads on the pull; two bragging, misogynist TV producers; frantic kitchen staff; the jobsworth loo attendant.
Quick costume changes, jackets on, jackets off, sunglasses, handbags and a multitude of voices delineate characters that tend towards the caricature and the stereotype, especially in the yuppies and the luvvies.
Holly Smith and Sophie Bullivantin multi-role playing mode in Shakers
Like the waitresses’ shift, the workload and the pace is restless, exacerbated by McKeller’s decision to forego an interval, but there is stillness too in the monologues, one for each waitress, more serious in tone each time, culminating in a shuddering finale as downbeat as Teechers’ end-of-term despair.
Teamwork in movement and dialogue is impressively slick under McKeller’s direction, typified by that closing scene, while high energy bursts through individual performances, Castle the pick, as strong and supportive as that name would suggest.
The audience rarely laughs out loud en masse, which could be unnerving for the cast, but McKeller’s company resists trying to force the humour. Good decision.
Instead, Shakers’ poignancy and awkward, sobering truths hit home harder, shaking and stirring us all the more.
Rowntree Players in Shakers, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, tonight, 7.30pm; tomorrow, 2.30pm and 7.30pm. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
In the mixer: Sophie Bullivant, Abi Carter, Holly Smith and Laura Castle in Rowntree Players’ Shakers
YORK ghost-walk host, actor, voiceover artist, filmmaker, tour guide and pantomime villain Jamie McKeller had not directed a play for 15 years when he took the reins for Teechers Leavers ’22 last March.
Among the Rowntree Players’ cast of three for former teacher John Godber’s state-of-the-nation’s-education play were Sophie Bullivant and radio presenter Laura Castle, who now return for another slice of Godber physical theatre, Shakers, this one co-written with his wife, Jane Thornton.
The sister to Godber’s northern nightclub comedy-drama Bouncers, Shakers dives head first into the worst bar in town, where everyone wants to be seen, at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, from Thursday to Saturday.
Here, Sophie’s Carol, Laura’s Mel, company newcomer Holly Smith’s Niki and Abi Carter’s Adele face the Saturday shift from hell. Lights, neon; music, loud; trainers, not allowed. Smart shoes only.
Thornton and Godber expose nightlife both sides of the sticky-floored bar, not only the cocktail-bar waitresses but the clientele too. Here come the girls, the lads, the yuppies and the luvvies, all played by Bullivant, Castle, Smith and Carter.
“I think this play is funnier than Bouncers, though I’ll still be going to Bouncers when it comes to York Theatre Royal in April,” says Jamie, who can draw on his own experiences to make his comparison.
“I’ve done Bouncers three times! I played Judd when I was 21; Les in my late-20s. They were both professional productions; then I was Ralph in my mid-30s in an amateur one at the Westwood Theatre in Scarborough.
“So the idea is, in ten to 15 years’ time, when my panto dame days are done, I’ll finally do Lucky Eric to complete the full Bouncers set!”
Whereas Jamie decided to present Godber’s updated 2022 version of Teechers, he will stick with 1987 vintage Shakers, not the 2022 remix, Shakers: Under New Management!.
“Initially we were looking at doing the final version of Bouncers, quite a grotesque version,” he recalls. “But once I read Shakers, I really wanted to do it, and do the earlier version, which even after more than 30 years still hits hard, when things aren’t necessarily better now…”
… “Things are just different,” says Laura. “This version of the play is a bit more spicy, and I like that!”
She is enjoying renewing her stage partnership with Sophie and teaming up with Abi and Holly too after they were picked from Jamie’s auditions. “Me and Sophie – and Sara [Howlett] – created quite bond in Teechers, and having done Godber before and Godber under Jamie’s direction before, that’s made it slightly easier for the whole cast in rehearsals,” says Laura.
“That gave us a head start as to just how pacy it is. Abi and Holly are super-talented and picked up the style very quickly. They’ve learned things from us, we’ve learned things from them, which has worked out really well.”
Jamie has been struck by Shakers’ abiding relevance, its stark message, for all its humour. “That humour is grotesque and amplified. The piece changes gear very rapidly, but it’s all grounded in the four monologues, one for each of them, that are staged with naturalism, with each speech becoming more serious,” he says.
“Shakers stands up and makes its stand. As a bloke, you find yourself thinking, ‘how do I feel about this?’, and it’s been very interesting to draw on the cast’s own experiences.”
Jamie will restrict the capacity to 100 per performance to lend his production a studio atmosphere in keeping with the play’s roots. “It will help to have the audience close up,” says Laura. “With everyone packed into the front, it will feel busy.” Like in a bar on a Saturday night.
Staging will be minimalist too, in Bouncers tradition, with four mini-bars on wheels on a neon and chrome set. “We’ve made the decision to mime most of the props, apart from a huge blow-up phone, but with little signifiers for the different characters we play, like shades or jackets, or a change of voice. We’ve chosen everything to make an impact.”
This complements the tone of Thornton and Godber’s play. “You won’t feel like you’ve bene lectured! What works is the contrast between being grotesque and comedic one moment, and then we hit you with real truths and that makes Shakers’ impact all the greater,” says Laura.
“Both this play and Teechers end on a downer, but that’s the harsh reality of life. We want you to have a good time but to leave thinking about the message we’ve put across in 80 minutes.”
Rowntree Players in Shakers, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, March 14 to 16, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinee.Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
Matheea Ellerby’s Sparkle, front left, Jade Farnill’s Jingle and Dylan Allcock’s “Daredevil” Dave feeling the full force of “Elfomatic Motion” in Pocklington Arts Centre’s The Elves And The Shoemaker Save Christmas. Picture: Abbi Eliza Photography
THE day before had been the Relaxed performance, watched by 130 people, appreciating Pocklington Arts Centre’s all-embracing community consideration in providing such a no-bounds show.
Attended by CharlesHutchPress, Tuesday’s matinee drew a smaller attendance, concentrated towards the front, with a couple of raucous young gents leading the laughter enthusiastically further back.
Such are the differing challenges that face a cast, in this case a young company featuring Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts graduate Matheea Ellerby in her professional debut alongside 2023 Hammond School musical theatre performance graduate and fellow Godber Theatre Foundation member Jade Farnill.
National Elf Service, Pocklington Division: Matheea Ellerby’s Sparkle, left, Jade Farnill’s Jingle and Dylan Allcock’s “Daredevil” Dave. Picture: Abbi Eliza Photography
Joining them is the more experienced Dylan Allcock, regular contributor to the world’s longest- running comedy sketch show, NewsRevue, and in-house composer for the comedy improv troupe The Noise Next Door.
He collaborates frequently with writer Elizabeth Godber and the John Godber Company, latterly serving as musical director for Elizabeth’s 2023 premiere of The Remarkable Tale of Dorothy Mackaill at East Riding Theatre, Beverley.
Produced by venue director Angela Stone, this Christmas show, the first in-house production in Pocklington Arts Centre’s 23-year history, has the Godbers of East Yorkshire at its core: Elizabeth as writer and her mother, the actress, playwright, director, drama teacher and youth theatre leader Jane Thornton, on playful directorial duty.
Writer Elizabeth Godber
In keeping with John Godber’s plays and productions, Elizabeth and Jane have their actors breaking down theatre’s fourth wall from the off, introducing the elves who work on Santa’s shelves for the National Elf Service, Pocklington Division.
Meet Ellerby’s Sparkle and Farnill’s Jingle, with their East Yorkshire vowels, and Lancashire interloper Allcock’s “Daredevil” Dave, with his Accrington burr and additional credit as keyboard-playing musical director and composer. Teamwork and bags of individual personality pepper their performances.
Survey Rick Kay’s set design, crammed with wooden panels, frost-dusted tree branches, propped-up skis, ladder, candy canes, boxes, battered armchair, patchwork quilt and Christmas stockings, plus Allcock’s keyboard, and everything is there for theatre of the imagination to take off.
What’s inside the box: Matheea Ellerby’s Sparkle, left, Jade Farnill’s Jingle and Dylan Allcock’s “Daredevil” Dave discover the elves’ Christmas presents.Picture: Abbi Eliza Photography
What’s that flashing away at the back? “It’s an EPS” explains the trio in red & green and trainers. “The Elf Positioning System”. This alarm device will help them carry out their tasks before Christmas Eve turns into Christmas Day in a race against time to help the shoemaker and Santa complete Christmas orders.
Their tasks? They include perking up a Christmas tree and its moody fairy (played delightfully glumly by Ellerby) and helping a girl (Farnill) whose nights are made sleepless by the bumps in her mattress (you will love the explanation). Then coaxing the runaway Gingerbread Man (Allcock in a gingerbread Santa’s hat, courtesy of costume artist Kate Noble) to return to work in a overrun bakery in York.
“GBread”, as he calls himself on social media, has ambitions to be a pop star on East Yorkshire’s Got Talent. Cue Allcock in Elton John glasses knocking out a rather fine song with aplomb.
Jane Thornton: director
The elves propel themselves from task to task, destination to destination, with the aid of Elfomatic Motion: the chance to turn boxes and skis into hair-raising modes of transportation that go down equally well with energetic cast and enthusiastic audience.
The skis, for example, are accompanied by the Ski Sunday theme in the eye of a storm as they confront the Snow Queen with her climate change plans to freeze everywhere from Hull to Howden to Pocklington.
How will the titular but so-far absent Shoemaker, as well as the elves, save Christmas? You will have to see the show to find out, but Elizabeth Godber’s comment on the potentially damaging impact of new technology is a chip off playwright father John’s political block, another tool to writing characterised by impish humour, fun, magic, mystery and a dash of pathos.
Christmas chestnuts such as Jingle Bells and Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree add to the festive cheer, topped off by a singalong rendition of Wizzard’s I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday beneath a spinning mirror ball.
Christmas 2023 saved, another in-house festive family show surely will follow next winter as Angela Stone continues to put her stamp on Pocklington Arts Centre in the post-Janet Farmer era.
Performances: December 14, 7.30pm; December 15 and 16, 1.30pm and 7.30pm. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.
IN FOCUS: Pocklington Arts Centre’s auditorium improvements from Feb 2024
Pocklington Arts Centre’s auditorium: Upgrades incoming
POCKLINGTON Arts Centre is to receive funding from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund to make significant accessibility improvements to the auditorium.
The Government’s Levelling Up funding for PAC will include an upgrade to the existing seating, with a new demountable seating system to be installed that will increase comfort for visitors and be flexible to meet demand for different types of performance.
In addition, access to wheelchair users and those with mobility limitations will be improved and handrails will be installed to offer better support when using the stairs to move around the auditorium.
The seating configuration will remain unchanged, enabling regular visitors to continue to book their favourite seat position, but the scheme also allows for improved usage of the back row area to accommodate up to four wheelchairs with designated companion spaces.
The auditorium design – a former cinema – has been challenging to be inclusive for wheelchair users and those with mobility restrictions to perform on stage, but the new plans include the installation of a stair-lift to the backstage area to make accessibility much more adaptable. This is likely to be complete by mid-2024.
Pocklington Arts Centre’s Forgotten Voices community choir member Lynn Drury has felt frustrated at being unable to access the stage easily as a performer alongside her fellow singers.
“I have been campaigning for accessibility improvements to make the performance area more inclusive for those of us who are restricted in getting to the stage due to every direction being reliant on stairs to get on and off,” she says.
“On a good day, I can be assisted, but on a bad day the extra physical effort required can leave me in pain for days. I am so looking forward to these improvements and know that many people in my position will benefit from this.”
PAC director Angela Stone says: “We are grateful to East Riding of Yorkshire Council, who administer the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, for recognising the significant impact this project will have on our community and our commitment to inclusivity and accessibility.
“20 per cent match funding has been allocated from our reserve funds as a contribution to the overall scheme of works, which will include the replacement of carpeting, decoration and the installation of LED house lights to improve energy efficiency and light quality.”
Pocklington Arts Centre’s stage: Accessibility improvements to be installed
Pocklington Town Council Mayor, Councillor Roly Cronshaw, says: “We support these improvements and look forward to seeing the results when the full scheme concludes by mid-2024.
“A lot of work has already been done to ensure a thorough procurement process and we are very grateful to Councillor Sue Carden, a retired quantity surveyor, for her significant contribution to the management of the project”.
The majority of the building work will begin in January 2024, with preparations for the work scheduled from Monday, December 18.
“Pocklington Arts Centre staff and volunteers recognise the positive impact these changes will have on the visitor experience, but also wish to respect the heritage of the existing seating,” says Angela.
“A bank of three seats will be retained and, where possible, other seats may be re-utilised elsewhere. It is anticipated that there may be around 180 seats available for collectors to purchase by donation. Anyone interested should contact boxoffice@pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.
“Any funds received through the sale or auction of these seats will be reinvested in the arts centre for ongoing maintenance and improvements.”
A number of seat plaques will be retained and a campaign to “sponsor a seat” is being launched today (15/12/2023), offering patrons the opportunity to have their name fixed to the seat for the planned unveiling during next February.
Pocklington Arts Centre will be closed to the public from Thursday, December 21. The community café will reopen from Tuesday, January 9 and Singing for Fun from Thursday, January 11 in the studio space, which will remain accessible during the works.
PAC’s other community groups will meet in the Studio during this time and new members will be welcomed to: Forgotten Voices on Tuesdays, from 7pm to 8.45pm, from January 9, Wolds Wonders on Wednesdays, 10am to 3pm, from January 10, and Thunk-It Youth Theatre on Wednesdays, 4.30pm to 5.30pm, age six to 11, and 5.30pm to 6.30pm, age 11+, from January 10. Pre-booking is required on 01759 301547 or at pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.
The first live public performance in the revamped auditorium will be Top Secret: The Magic Of Science on Saturday, February 10 at 2.30pm.
The poster for Pocklington Arts Centre’s festive family show The Elves And The Shoemaker Save Christmas
POCKLINGTON Arts Centre’s debut in-house theatre production, The Elves & The Shoemaker Save Christmas, opens tomorrow with the Godber family at the helm.
Jane Thornton, actress and writer wife of playwright John Godber, directs daughter Elizabeth Godber’s original adaptation of the traditional tale of The Elves & The Shoemaker for Christmas 2023.
This 70-minute, family-friendly, fun, festive musical show will feature three cheeky elves, Jingle, Sparkle and Daredevil Dave, as they journey through a variety of well-known fairy tales with a cast of familiar characters, leading to plenty of comedy capers and mishaps along the way.
Put it this way: “‘Twas the night before Christmas and across East Yorkshire land/Excited children count sheep as three cheeky elves lend a hand/Yes, Jingle, Sparkle and Daredevil Dave have gingerbread to cook, peas to find and shoes to make But who gives the Elves their Christmas? Surely they too deserve a break?”
Jade Farnill: Starring as Jingle in The Elves And The Shoemaker Save Christmas
Pocklington Arts Centre (PAC) has committed to supporting East Yorkshire talent with early career creatives and emerging actors to the fore in this show. Alongside Jane and Elizabeth in the production team are Rick Kay, set design and build, Benjamin Wall, production manager and lighting designer, and Kate Noble, wardrobe and props supervisor, while PAC director Angela Stone has been working closely with crew and cast as producer.
Hull born and bred Jade Farnill will step into the role of Jingle. She is a 2023 graduate and Godber Theatre Foundation Award recipient from the Hammond School in Chester, where she completed a degree in musical theatre performance.
Dylan Allcock will play Daredevil Dave with “just the right balance of characterisation and comedy timing”. As an actor/musician, Dylan will be responsible for musical direction and the creation of an original composition for the show.
Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts graduate Matheea Ellerby will complete the cast in her professional debut as Sparkle.
Dylan Allcock: Playing Daredevil Dave
Writer Elizabeth Godber says: “I am so excited to be writing The Elves And The Shoemaker Save Christmas for Pocklington Arts Centre. Being born and raised in East Yorkshire, I grew up visiting the arts centre to see shows and films and attend workshops as a kid, so now, getting to write their Christmas show for children and families, it really feels as if it has come full circle!
“I’ve had so much fun working on the script: there’s going to be lots of laughs, lots of live music, lots of local references and lots of Christmas fun that can be enjoyed by everyone of all ages and really bring the community together this December.”
The Elves And The Shoemaker Save Christmas will run for 15 performances, including two matinees for schools only. Schools interested in attending those performance should contact the box office on 01759 301547 or email boxoffice@pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk as they are not bookable online.
Matheea Ellerby: Making her professional debut as Sparkle
PAC is offering a relaxed performance on Sunday at 10.30am for families that require a more relaxed environment when going to the theatre. This will include house lights (rather than dark), a relaxed attitude to involuntary sounds and moving around the auditorium during the performance, a straight run through with no interval, and a quiet break-out space available.
For that show, a section of seats with social distancing is reserved to support those who may prefer some spaces between parties. Four blocks of four seats and one block of two seats can be pre-booked through the box office.
The Elves And The Shoemaker Save Christmas, Pocklington Arts Centre, December 7 to 16. Performances: 7.30pm, December 7, 8, 9, 12, 14, 15 and 16; 1.30pm, December 9, 10, 15 and 16; 10.30am, December 10. Tickets (£12 adults, £9 under 25s, £35 family of four) can be booked at pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk or on 01759 301547.
Elizabeth Godber
Elizabeth Godber: the back story
Hull-born writer. Studied BA in Creative Writing and English at University of Hull and MA in Writing for Performance and Publication at University of Leeds. Now PhD student at University of Hull.
Her 2023 adaptation of The Comedy of Errors (More Or Less), co-written with Nick Lane for Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, and Shakespeare North Playhouse, has been nominated for UK Theatre Award.
Her 2023 play The Remarkable Tale of Dorothy Mackaill was premiered at East Riding Theatre, Beverley, in September.
Further writing credits: Ruby And The Vinyl (John Godber Company/tour); M&S: Dressed In Time (Leeds Playhouse); Three Emos (tour); The Remarkable Tale Of Dorothy (Hull New Theatre); Festive Spirits” (Hull City Hall/Burton Constable Hall).
Poetry and film/audio credits: Forget Me Not (BBC Radio 6 Music); The Way You Look Tonight (BBC Upload Festival/iplayer); Does This Make Sense?” (Random Acts for Channel 4); Restless Verse (online).
On their knees: Jane Thornton’s Caroline and John Godber’s Dave in Living On Fresh Air
John Godber Company in Living On Fresh Air, striding out at Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, tonight until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 1.30pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com
JOHN Godber likes to put the physical in his plays, from men’s Rugby League to ladies’ rugby sevens, judo to weightlifting, skiing to crown bowls, cycling to hill walking… or the sheer physicality of the clashing doormen in Bouncers. Action theatre as the academics call it.
Walking, in pursuit of exercise under Covid restrictions, grew in popularity beyond Alfred Wainwright devotees. On one such pandemic perambulation, your reviewer bumped into – well, kept a responsible social distance from – John Godber and wife Jane Thornton on the waterside of Pocklington Canal.
“Must be plenty of material for a play about Covid-19, John?”. “No comedy there,” ruled out Godber. So, maybe not Covid (although it does feature prominently in his revamp of Teechers Leavers ’22) but walking now lies at the heart of Living On Fresh Air, as John and Jane take to the stage together again, just as they did in recent years in Shafted, Scary Bikers and Sunny Side Up.
Presented by the John Godber Company in association with Harrogate Theatre, Godber’s state-of-the-nation report and all’s-not-well Orwellian look into the future already has had a run-out in the reviving spa town after a preview week at Beverley’s East Riding Theatre in late-March.
Now Living On Fresh Air is going for a bracing stretch on the coast, camping out in the Round from tonight at the SJT. It opens with Godber and Thornton’s newly retired Yorkshire couple Dave and Caroline out of puff as they reach the peak of Scafell Pike.
It will be all down hill from there, for Britain, for Dave and Caroline’s retirement plans, but not for the play, a grouchily humorous outpouring of present frustrations, doom-and-gloom whither-next forecasts and forlorn, probably futile forewarnings amid Godber’s despair at how we have gone from the Sex Pistols’ Anarchy In The UK to apathy at the decay.
In a typically conversational Godber play of direct address to the audience and chatter between the affable, head-shaking couple, full of anecdotal snapshots, we learn that Dave and Caroline had everything they ever wanted: nice house, hot tub, small mortgage, a few savings and a new smart meter.
However, the plug is pulled from the hot tub (er, do hot tubs have plugs?) by the double whammy of Covid and its equally unwelcome new next-door neighbour, the cost-of-living crisis.
Their middle-aged son (Peter McMillan) moves back home, bills are rising faster than Boris Johnson’s fat cheques on the speaker circuit, and so is the temperature (that other crisis of the climate variety). Peace and quiet, going, money, going, tub gone.
Better take to the hills, they decide, to live on fresh air, wrapped up against the elements, in the Dales and the Lakes and on Scafell Pike alike on Graham Kirk’s set, but even that has a sting in the tale once Godber projects into the not-too-distant future. (Just as Alan Ayckbourn is doing likewise, by the way, in his two imminent premieres, Welcome To The Family, at The Old Laundry, Bowness-on-Windermere, from May 12 to 27, and Constant Companions at his regular stamping ground of the SJT from September 7 to October 7).
Ten years from now, as his by-now septuagenarian couple reveals, Godber predicts people will be living in containers in London; the arts will have been suppressed; health care privatised; fat cats will be even fatter; utilities bills ever higher, and roaming charges will apply, not to using mobile phones abroad, but to walking in beautiful public spaces.
Is this a joke? A tragicomedy, more like. Or a farce too serious to be funny, although there is observant, blunt but sharp Yorkshire humour aplenty here too.
Does a playwright need to offer hope? No? Does he have a duty to offer answers? No. McCartney once sang “I admit it’s getting better, a little better all the time”, only for Lennon to counter acidly “It can’t get no worse”, but now Godber believes it can and it will. No sign of a tide turning, or even a voice turning against the tide; no raging against the dying of the light; no wise Shakespearean Fool on the hill. Only Cassandra.
Co-directed briskly by Godber and Neil Sissons, you can’t call it a cautionary tale because Godber foresees no-one breaking the shackles of apathy. What lies in store? Struggles to pull on your socks as you age is just the start. Tough as old boots they may be, but weary walkers Dave and Caroline have too many mountains to climb, and so do we all.
John Godber as taciturn B&B owner Barney in Godber’s coastal comedy Sunny Side Up!. Picture: Martha Godber
John Godber Company in Sunny Side Up!, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, tonight, 7.30pm; Hull Truck Theatre, November 1 to 6; 7.30pm; 2pm, Wednesday and Saturday. Box office: Scarborough, 01723 370541 or at sjt.uk.com; Hull, 01482 323638 or hulltruck.co.uk
WHEN the Godber family presented last October’s premiere of Sunny Side Up! in their isolated North Sea bubble at Scarborough, the first sighting of the SJT audience in face masks prompted John Godber to say he thought he was in an operating theatre, not a theatre.
Unlike at many theatres, socially distanced seating prevails at the SJT, where wearing a mask is still the expectation, rather than the exception.
The Godbers, writer-director-actor John, wife Jane Thornton and daughter Martha Godber, remains the cast; her elder sister, Elizabeth, now studying at Hull University for a PhD in the poetry of Emily Dickinson, still finds time to be the company stage manager. Both sisters took the production pictures too.
What has changed? Sunny Side Up! is even better than it was a year ago – and longer too, with an interval inserted, more political grit, more comic interplay to go with the self-analysis and class wars, but still fast moving.
Godber has always been at his best when he is riled, questioning the status quo with Yorkshire frankness, shaking his head but finding humour as he observes British characteristics with befuddlement but a dart’s player’s accuracy, driven by a desire both for mischief making and for change.
Above all, an even stronger sense emerges of Godber commenting, not on the deathly march of Covid, nor the Government’s handling of the pandemic, but on its impact on our behaviour, our appreciation of people and nature around us, our re-evaluation of our neglected, suffering towns and forgotten, left-behind villages amid the expedient rise of the staycation.
Sunny Side Up! is billed as a “hilarious and moving account of a struggling Yorkshire coast B&B and the people who run it: down-to-earth proprietors Barney, Tina and daughter Cath and Tina as they share their stories of awkward clients, snooty relatives and eggs over easy” in Godber’s familiar conversational, pull-up-a-chair story-telling style.
Martha Godber’s affronted holiday-maker confronts John Godber’s retired academic in Sunny Side Up!. Picture: Elizabeth Godber
The focus, however, falls more on one of those “snooty relatives”, the fish-out-of-water Graham, Tina’s brother, who has taken up her invitation to bring his wife for a short break back at his roots, now that a foreign trip has been ruled out.
It is not so much that Graham was a big fish in a small pool, so much as that his academic prowess led him to other pools, culminating in his becoming a professor and university pro-vice chancellor, who wanted his own success to be a template for other working-class children to follow suit on a social-mobility conveyor belt. He has not been “back home” to this East Coast last resort for ages.
Graham (John Godber) has the big black car with tinted windows, the expensive shoes and the expensive food tastes; his wife (Thornton) has an MBE for her work in the public cause. She is invariably happy, wanting to stop for a sandwich break on a lay-by after only four miles; Graham is perennially unhappy; he would not be going at all, if it came down to choice rather than a sense of family duty.
Brexiteer Barney, who largely takes a back seat, out on errands, is no fan of Graham, while daughter Cath (Martha’s main role) has the bloody-minded, mischievous streak that Godber himself loves.
Consequently, she, more so than Tina and Barney, breaks down theatre’s fourth wall to engage directly with the audience, putting them on her side as she makes sure Graham’s visit is anything but easy over and comments on his wife always calling her “Catherine”, a name she has grown to dislike for its unnecessary floweriness.
There are echoes of September In The Rain and Happy Jack as Graham revisits his past, going fishing in one beautiful, tender scene, but there is no whiff of nostalgia here. Initially, he had laughed scornfully at the cramped, antiquated top-floor bedroom Tina had provided, but the more he sees, the more it sets off his frustration at such places being forgotten, under-funded, under-appreciated, in need of watering.
Yet he himself had left Sunny Side, forgotten it, and so Godber does not let that pathos go unchallenged, nor Graham’s despair at a pair of holidaying old miners spouting Yorkshire cliches (in a cameo by John and Jane not far removed from the old Four Yorkshiremen sketch from The At Last The 1948 Show and Monty Python).
Jane Thornton’s Tina and Martha Godber’s Cath in Sunny Side Up! Picture: Elizabeth Godber
In the defining scene, Martha Godber’s second principal character, a blunt, no-nonsense holiday-maker no longer able to afford Zante, confronts Graham as to why he did not come home to try to make a difference – to do his own version of levelling up – rather than preach from his academic high tower, out of touch and out of reach.
Godber and Graham are both over 65; both have aching knees, both are bright working-class lads with teaching in their locker; both always vote Labour; both want better for what is already there or once was there until the oxygen was switched off.
Graham has retired, Godber is anything but retired, and Sunny Side Up! is up there with his radical environmental satire Crown Prince and his post-mining drama Shafted! as the best of his 21st century writing. Godber at his most humane and touching but b****y funny too.
There is even magic realism in an encounter between Graham and his late mother (Martha again), her memory eroded by dementia, and moments of physical comedy in the Bouncers tradition as Graham, his wife and Cath climb the endless stairs without a stairwell in sight.
Four chairs and a suitcase, a miniature lighthouse, some rocks and a plastic seagull make up Graham Kirk’s set with familiar Godber economy. In that open space, with room to breathe in that sea air, the performances are terrific. Godber doing a Godber play, with innate comic timing, is always a joy; likewise, his stage partnership with wife Jane makes for a wonderfully forthright double act but one grounded in truthfulness as much as playfulness.
Martha, meanwhile, continues a run of stand-out performances this year in Godber’s Moby Dick at Stage@The Dock, Hull; as Olivia in Luke Adamson’s Twelfth Night at Selby RUFC and now her multi-roles in Sunny Side Up!, full of humour but poignant too. Never better than when the grounded Cath, unlike Graham in younger days, says she will not move on but will look to make Sunny Side a better B&B.
Godber is on such good form here, he even weaves his and Jane’s conversion to “sort-of veganism” into the play with a running in-joke where Cath offers up eggs sunny side up as the vegan breakfast option. Think about it!
Review by Charles Hutchinson
John Godber and Jane Thornton: “A wonderfully forthright double act but grounded in truthfulness as much as playfulness”. Picture: Martha Godber
John Godber and Jane Thornton premiering Sunny Side Up! at the Stephen Joseph Theatre last October. Picture: Martha Godber
THE John Godber Company returns to the Stephen Joseph Theatre next month with Sunny Side Up!, the coastal comedy premiered by the Godbers in a family bubble at the Scarborough theatre last autumn.
Rehearsed at home, John Godber’s play played to socially distanced sell-out audiences at the end of October 2020, just before the start of the second pandemic lockdown. From October 7 to 9, it will be performed before a socially distanced audience once more in the Round.
Writer-director Godber will reprise his role as Barney alongside his wife, fellow writer Jane Thornton, and daughter, Martha Godber. Daughter Elizabeth completes the family line-up as company stage manager; Graham Kirk provides the design and lighting.
In Godber’s moving account of a struggling Yorkshire coast B&B and the people who run it, down-to-earth proprietors Barney, Cath and Tina share stories of awkward clients, snooty relatives and eggs over easy.
Jane Thornton and Martha Godber in a scene from last October’s premiere of John Godber’s Sunny Side Up!. Picture: Elizabeth Godber
“If you’re thinking of holidaying at home this year, why not book into the Sunny Side Boarding House soon,” invites Godber, whose seaside feel-good rollercoaster digs into the essence of “staycations”.
Godber’s play is told in his signature style, blending authenticity and pathos as he addresses the problems of levelling up, leaving home and never forgetting where you come from.
This John Godber Company and Theatre Royal, Wakefield production can be seen at the SJT on October 7 at 1.30pm and 7.30pm, October 8, 7.30pm, and October 9, 2.30pm and 7.30pm.
Tickets, priced from £10, are available on 01723 370541 and at sjt.uk.com.
Barney trouble: John Godber in the role of struggling B&B proprietor Barney in Sunny Side Up!. Picture: Martha Godber
