Shakers
By John Godber and Jane Thorton
Part of the Havant 9 Days In May Arts Festival, 2003
Directed by Tim Taylor
Shakers Cocktail Bar is THE place to be! After work, before a club, to
meet the blokes, to pick up the girls, to drink to celebrate or drown your
sorrows, for birthdays and parties and romance and sin, this is the place to be
seen
And in Shakers the four young waitresses reveal the lives of its staff
and customers and offer an insight into their hopes, dreams and disappointments.
John Godber's sparkling writing builds on the success of his earlier Bouncers to
create a richly absorbing yet tellingly revealing modern comedy
Performances :
Saturday 17th May - Hayling Community Centre, Hayling Park, 7:30
Tuesday 20th May - Park Community School, 7:30
Wednesday 21 May - Havant Arts Centre, 7:30
Sunday 25th May, Bedhampton Social Hall, 2:30
The Authors John Godber&Jane
Thornton
John Godber is the second most performed living English playwright, and
behind only Shakespeare and Aykbourne the third most often performed of all
time. He has also had considerable success writing for television.
He was born the son of a miner in Upton, West Yorkshire. He trained as a
teacher of drama at Bretton Hall College. Prior to his appointment as Artistic
Director of Hull Truck Theatre Company in 1984 he was Head of Drama at
Minsthorpe High School, the school he attended as a student. Whilst he was
teaching at Minsthorpe he won almost every major award at the National Student
Drama Festival. Between 1981 and 1983, he has also won five Edinburgh Fringe
First Awards and in 1984 won the Laurence Olivier Comedy of the Year Award for
Up 'n' Under. His plays are performed across the world. Bouncers was nominated
for Comedy of the Year in 1985 and won seven Los Angeles Critics Circle Awards
and five awards in Chicago in 1987. On the Piste was nominated for the Comedy of
the Year in 1983 and April in Paris was nominated for Comedy of the Year in
1994.
Plays by John Godber include:
April in Paris Passion Killers
Big Trouble in the Little Bedroom Perfect Pitch
Blood, Sweat and Tears Salt of the Earth
Bouncers Seasons in the Sun
Bouncers - the 1990s remix September in the Rain
Bouncers - USA version Shakers Re-stirred (with Jane Thornton)
A Clockwork Orange Shakers USA (with Jane Thornton)
Cramp Teechers
Dracula (with Jane Thornton) Thick as a Brick
Gym and Tonic Unleashed
Happy Families Up 'n' Under 1
Happy Jack Up 'n' Under 2
It Started with a Kiss The Weed
Lucky Sods Weekend Breaks
On the Piste Young Hearts Run Free
Office Party On a Night Like This
As well as directing all the first productions of his plays, John has
directed The Glass Menagerie, Woyzeck, Twelfth Night, Gargling with Jelly,
Playing Away and Alan Plater's Sweet Sorrow.
John's TV work includes Crown Court, Grange Hill and Brookside. In 1987 he
wrote and co-directed the BBC2 six part series The Ritz and its sequel The
Continental. His screenplay My Kingdom for a Horse, starring Sean Bean, was
nominated for an alternative BAFTA award and he devised the BBC2 series
Chalkface. He directed a TV version of Shakers - The Musical which was nominated
Best Children's TV Drama, 1993. John's first feature film, Up 'n' Under was
released in January 1998. He is married with two daughters.
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