Play Readings - Thurs 15th - Steaming

Steaming is a 1981 play written by English playwright Nell Dunn first staged at Theatre Royal, Stratford, in London. It won the 1981 Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Comedy (at the time known as the Society of West End Theatre Award for Best New Comedy).

Play readings - Thurs 8th - Bouncers

An award winning play written by John Godber 

Bouncers is 26 years old and has recently been performed in London at the Whitehall Theatre with John Godber in the role of Judd. It has run previously on the West End for almost two years.

When Bouncers was first performed as part of the 1977 Edinburgh Fringe Festival its author, John Godber, then 21 years old, made up half of the cast. The other half, Peter Greeves, went on to perform in future versions of the play.

The first version, a two hander (2 actors) about a hard night's drinking in a northern night club had a first night audience which equalled the cast in number. John remembers:

"The only people there were a drunk and a critic from The Scotsman. The drunk got up on stage and tried to join in and the critic left before the end".

John's uncle built the set which was transported up to the Festival in the back of a car.

26 years, many tours and thousands of performances later the play is an international cult hit and has played in Britain, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the USA receiving great critical acclaim and awards including: seven Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards and five Jefferson Awards in Chicago.

In 1999 Bouncers was chosen by the National Theatre as one of the top 100 plays of the 20th century as part of the NT2000 Platform.