22 August - 13 September - The Queen's Theatre

John GodberJohn GodberJohn Godber holds a remarkable position in modernBritish theatre. He is reputedly the third most stagedplaywright in the country (after Shakespeare and AlanAyckbourn) and yet he devotes his time and writingtalents to Hull Truck Theatre, which for all itssuccesses and influence, is still a small-scale,independent theatre company, lacking the resourcesand kudos of the big provincial venues and Londonhouses. That his plays transcend their relativelyhumble origins and go on to rank among the mostperformed of all works says a great deal aboutGodber’s talent and his instinctive understanding ofwhat makes popular and accessible theatre. Thattalent has seen him write nearly forty plays includingsuch enduring hits as Bouncers, Up ’n’ Under,Teechers, September in the Rain and Perfect Pitch,all of which have had audiences enthralled andentertained for much of the last few decades.And nor have his efforts gone unnoticed by thecritics. Since 1981 he has racked up an enviable haulof accolades, including the 1984 Lawrence OlivierComedy Award for Up ’n’ Under; every major awardat the National Student Drama Festival between 1981and 1983; no less than five Edinburgh Fringe FirstAwards for plays including Cramp, Happy Jack andUp ’n’ Under; and an incredible seven Los AngelesCritics’ Circle Awards for Bouncers, which was alsonominated for the 1985 Comedy of the Year Award(two further plays, On the Piste and April in Paris,were also nominated for the same award in 1983 and1994 respectively). And it doesn’t end there: awayfrom the theatre his screenplay for the 1991 BBC filmMy Kingdom for a Horse, which starred Sean Bean,was nominated for an alternative BAFTA while hisBBC2 educational film Odd Squad, co-written with hiswife Jane Thornton in 2005, won two BAFTAs in theSchools Drama and Original Writing sections.Certainly his most successful show, Bouncers, hasbecome something of a theatrical institution, not justin Britain, but worldwide. If the reports are to bebelieved, at virtually any given moment, a productionof Bouncers is being staged somewhere in the world,usually to great acclaim. Not bad for a man who, borninto a West Yorkshire mining family in 1956, chose toforego the family trade in favour of studying drama atuniversity and then becoming a drama teacher at hisold school. Indeed, it was through student drama thathe first made his name as a writer, but he was soonwriting full-length plays and contributing scripts to TVshows such as Crown Court, Brookside and GrangeHill among others. His major break as a playwrightcame in 1984 when he took over as Artistic Directorat the fledgling Hull Truck Theatre Company, a rolehe has served in ever since. Almost all of his mostfamous and successful plays have premiered at Hullwith Godber directing the first production.At Hull, Godber became famous for his unique styleof popular, accessible plays designed to attract thekind of audiences who might not ordinarily considergoing to the theatre. Plays like Up ’N’ Under with itsrugby league theme and Bouncers, set in the world ofseedy nightclubs, attracted a huge following. Godberhas gone on to write a number of plays based onpopular settings and themes, such as various sportsand pastimes. These include judo (Blood, Sweat andTears), skiing (On the Piste), wrestling (WrestlingMad), bowls (Crown Prince), caravanning (Perfect