PLAYWRIGHT John Godber sat alongside Theatre Royal artistic director Damian Cruden at Tuesday's press night, a reminder of a long bond, not least forged in Godber's biggest, bounciest hit play.

Past Bouncers alumni Rob Angell, Nigel Betts, Andrew Dunn and Martin Barrass were all in the audience - a fine team they would have made - as a reminder of the omnipresence of this northern nightclub comedy, and Cruden himself has now directed the play a remarkable nine times.

More remarkably, in his first Bouncers at York since 1998, he has made it fresher than ever, and Godber has a job on his hands to top it in his 30th anniversary tour this autumn at Hull Truck.

Bouncers can be pulled off with only two beer barrels and four handbags, but after Sue Dunderdale's rotten Wuthering Heights, it was important that Cruden reasserted the Theatre Royal's highest standards of performance. Here was theatre that made you cheer, grimace, and even cry at veteran doorman Lucky Eric's despairing speeches.

Catherine Chapman's worse-for-wear set of metal grills and dancing poles, Ciaran Bagnall's heart-pumping lighting and the pulsating disco sounds are all spot on, and so too is Christopher Madin's music for the Space Odyssey/beer advert spoof that takes Bouncers' traditionally cinematic opening to new heights.

More crucially, everything is in synch with the choreographed performances of the four doormen in dinner jackets, who are never out of sight from the moment they frisk you at the foyer entrance. Cruden has cast superbly in Andy Hockley, as Lucky Eric, the king of bouncers with a future drifting away from him; Matthew Rixon as his nutty, uppity protégé Judd; Davood Ghadami as the cool yet jumpy Ralph and Nick Figgis as Les the lad. The teamwork is precise yet still with room for innovation, maybe a little cruder than before, with "vomiting" on the front row a fresh form of audience contact.

The combative quartet is particularly impressive when playing the girls on a stag-night bender, especially Ghadami's sauceboat Sexy Suzy, while the boys on the weekend pull have their best moments in the urinals.

If you have never seen Bouncers, why not? If you have, don't miss the adrenaline rush of this brilliant, brutally honest night out, the madness of the Micklegate Run with punchlines rather than punches. York Theatre Royal has bounced back, and how.


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