Bouncers and Shakers tickets and listings

Bursting with imagination, Bouncers and Shakers is an outrageous and hilarious parody of the disco scene.

The four brutish bouncers of the title portray over twenty different characters as we are invited for a night out on the town. We see them as giggly girls and lads on the make preparing for the big night out as we follow their progress to the disco floor. There, we also meet an entire cross-section of disco-goers, including Hooray Henrys, pogoing punks and drunken slobs!

The evening's events arc set against the tatty glitzy glamour, flashing lights and pulsating beat of the night-club scene.

In a not-so-chic London bar called Shakers, we meet Carol, Adele, Nicky and Mel, four friends who have taken to waitressing in desperation but who also have wit and resilience enough to never let any of the colourful characters they come across escape their satire unscathed.

In theatrically heightened moments, the women play the roles of men and women alike, covering not only their nights at Shakers but also the lives of four other working women in London. Always at the source of their satire are the men who take them for granted or, worse, abuse them.

Against this backdrop of postmodern London life are kaleidoscopic scenes of hilarity and depravity. In intertwining plot threads we follow the waitresses as they confront a possible new owner for the bar and at the same time we follow four shop girls getting ready for a night on the town.

Tart-tongued and irreverent, the lives of all of these women are put in painful perspective by the doubling of their roles which draws attention to the economic and social prejudices affecting all women, not just the fighters we meet at Shakers. Four struggling waitresses try to have a go of it against their customers, bosses and dates alike, using humour, role playing and all out rage to ward off the hopelessness that was Thatcher's London.

Written by Jon Godber and Jane Thornton, an amateur production presented with permission from Josef Weinberger Ltd.