bouncers - artour · 2 bouncers company profile heartbeast theatre is a brisbane-based independent...

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BOUNCERSCOMPANY PROFILEheartBeast Theatre is a Brisbane-based independent theatre company founded in 2010 that has built up repertoir of bold, creatively challenging and highly entertaining work.

With a special focus on physical theatre, we have created orginal scripted and site-specific work, reimagined classics, and given dynamic performances of Absurdist and Contemporary works.

What we aim to do is

• through ongoing exploration, creativity and performance, to investigate, develop and present a repertoire of heightened, adventurous, artistically excellent theatre that educates, entertains, enthrals and extends audiences to reconsider their personal perspectives, philosophies and place in the world

• to provide experienced and developing theatre creatives with a rehearsal and performance environment that strongly encourages artistic experimentation and personal creativity in a dynamic, harmonious atmosphere

• to foster the development of both experienced and emerging theatre creatives.

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BOUNCERSABOUT THE SHOWBouncers has been one of the most popular comedies on stages around the world since it was first performed in 1977. It reached new audiences in the 1990s when it was “remixed” by its writer John Godber. Jump to 2018, and heartBeast Theatre renewed the show again for 21st century Australia.

In March 2018 heartBeast Theatre reimagined Brisbane’s Historic Spring Hill Reservoir as an underground nightclub - pumping with dance music, flashing with laser lights – and invited audiences into a crude carnival of nightlife. This is the world of Bouncers.

Four suited-up men on the door cast a wry eye on the Friday night ritual that unfolds before them and, without missing a beat, they play out, rap, sing and dance their way through multiple characters, stories both tragic and hilarious.

In the chaos, in the small hours of Friday night, when some are achingly lonely, while other are joyous, delirious with drink, or maybe just unconscious, we find that desperate times and desperate people call for desperate, ridiculous and outrageous measures.

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BOUNCERSACKNOWLEDGEMENTSWriter – John Godber

Directors – David Paterson and Sherri Smith

Crew

Stage and costume designer – Tracy Klupfel

Sound design – Mark Robinson

Lighting design – Emily Allen and Paige Williams

Cast

Peter Condon - Lucky Eric

Ralph – Rowan Howard

Judd – Chris Vaag

Les – Campbell Lindsay

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BOUNCERSBIOS

PETER CONDON

Peter has been acting throughout Australia for many years. He performed in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, including the iconic LaMama Theatre. Peter’s first play was Fac-es in the Street, at the original La Boite Theatre in Brisbane in 1981. He has also toured his one man show Markus De Port in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. Peter has also performed in many short and feature films including A Place to Call Home and A Secret Daughter. This is Peter’s first production with heartBeast Theatre.

CHRIS VAAG

Chris has been performing for many years, and has been performing with Queensland Shakespeare Ensemble (QSE) for the last few years. His productions with QSE have in-cluded, Bogga, The Tempest, Twelfth Night, A Winter’s Tale, and Titus.

Other productions Chris has performed in include The Unexpected Guest, Hedda Gabler, The Merchant of Venice, and Romeo and Juliet,

This is Chris‘s second production with heartBeast - he last performed in in Oberon in 2011.

ROWAN HOWARD

Rowan is a multi-award winning actor who has performed in several plays for Melbourne theatre companies, including Les Liaisons Dangerouses (Peridot Theatre) Over the River and Through the Woods, and Farragut North (Williamstown Little Theatre). He has has appeared in several TV series including Dr Blake Mysteries, Please Like Me, Neighbours, Party Tricks, Mako: Island of Secrets, The Olivia Newton John Biopic, and the new Netflix series Harrow. Rowan has performed in many short films, and his feature film credits include Holding the Man, Out of Order and 36 Questions. This is his first performance with heartBeast.

CAMPBELL LINDSAY

Campbell is studying for a Bachelor of Creative Arts (Theatre/Acting) at the University of Southern Queensland. He has worked on a great variety of university productions in all capacities. As a performer he has appeared in We That Are Left, Trash, Pride and Preju-dice, Othello, Look Back in Anger and Tartuffe. This is Campbell’s second production with heartBeast - last year he performed in heartBeast’s production of Rhinoceros.

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BOUNCERSBIOSDavid Paterson – Co-director

David is the Artistic Director of heartBeast Theatre. He has been acting, directing and writing for theatre and film over the last twenty years. For heartBeast he co-directed and played the titular role in Hamlet and recently directed Antigone, and produced Rhinoc-eros. David’s extensive training includes work with Redlands School of Performing Arts, Queensland Theatre Company Youth Theatre, La Boite Theatre Company and Oz Frank Theatre Company.

His performance credits include: heartBeast Theatre: Hamlet, King Lear, Away; THAT Pro-duction Company: When the Rain Stops Falling (co presented with the Judith Wright Cen-tre) God of Carnage, A Lie of the Mind, Spells for Adolescents, Romeo and Juliet; Ipswich Little Theatre: A Few Good Men, Searching for Doctor Branovich, The Importance of Being Earnest; Brisbane Theatre Company: The Caretaker; Bayside Players: Mad Forest, Play(by Samuel Beckett); Plympton Players: Blood Wedding; Adelaide University Guild: King Lear; Twelfth Night Theatre: Hamlet; Brisbane Arts Theatre: The Caucasian Chalk Circle.

Feature and short films and web series: Rise, Ada, Tomorrow, Radio Treason, Tin Can, Dinner for Three, A Just World, Picnic, Boot, Catharsis, Stuck, The Eleventh Day, Hit Stroke FM.

Writing credits: The Door - winner of Queensland Theatre Company Young Playwrights Award; Father Away; Five and Six Eighths.

Sheri Smith – Co-director

Sherri has worked widely on stage and screen. Her theatre credits for heartBeast Theatre include: Oberon, Beauty is Difficult, Vivien Leigh’s School for Scandal and Away; The Bris-bane Festival: Twelfth Night, Calling It Quits, The Carbon Footprint Cabaret, Mania; The Shakespeare Festival: Romeo & Juliet; and The Lives & Deaths of Evie Sharman for Cross Road Arts/Queensland Theatre Company.

Sherri holds a Bachelor Creative Arts (Theatre), Adv Dip Screen & Stage Acting, Adv Dip Screen & Media. She is a Combat Instructor and holds a wide variety of RAD dance certi-fication.

Fight training for film & theatre productions includes: Project Eden Vol.1, Miss Saigon, Antigone, Hamlet, Six Characters in Search of an Author, King Lear, Lotus 8 and How to Matter.

Film credits: Phoenix Rising, My Name is Pornsuk, Aryan, Jack’s Birthday Party, Without a Shadow, Vision Reality.

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BOUNCERSMARKETING MATERIAL AVAILABLE• Marketing copy

• High-quality high-res photos

• Poster artwork

• Flier artwork

• Video trailer

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BOUNCERS4/26/2018 Bouncers (QLD) - Theatrepeople

http://www.theatrepeople.com.au/bouncers-qld/ 1/8

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BOUNCERS (QLD) SHANE WEBB — MARCH 18, 2018

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4/26/2018 Bouncers (QLD) - Theatrepeople


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Written by John Godber, originally for an english audience inthe late 70’s and rewritten throughout the 80’s, Bouncers isan observational comedy that slips up against theQueensland club scene like a hand into a too tight glove.

Transplanted into an Australian culture, the geographicreferences hit home and even draw a few knowing smiles,but some of the idioms, and the cadence in the language isso strongly English that it rubbed and cha�ed a little as theproduction unwound.

Directed by David Paterson and Sherri Smith the work isintensely physical, and the four men in the cast play adizzying array of nightclubbers, friends, family, dj’s,husbands, lovers, and all viewed through the fraught andcomplex gaze of the bouncers.

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Chris Vagg

Campbell Lindsey

Paterson and Smith used the small space, deep in thecaverns of the Spring Hill Reservoir as an almost immersiveexperience for the audience. Loud music, a stamp on yourhand on entry, get lost in the lights and the labyrinthinespace inside the reservoir. Watch the relationships unfold asthe music blasts and everything moves at an energy levelthat is best described as a 15 out of 10 (sometimes it isuncomfortably high for uncomfortably long – but thenclubbing can be like that too). It is like being swallowed intoanother world, it’s in your face theatre, and it prompts thetype of conversations that I think we should be having a lotmore of. About drinking, party culture, consent, lock outlaws, violence, and mental health.

Our fourbouncers are played with remarkable commitment by ChrisVagg, Campbell Lindsey, Peter Condon, and Rowan Howard.They bounce between characters seemingly e�ortlessly, andeach give noteworthy, high octane performances. One of thebeautiful things about the script, is that it will �ip on a nailhead between an almost absurdist dance party, to a stillnessheld forth by the dark musings of bouncer “Lucky Eric”(Condon), giving the piece a moment of almostShakespearean introspection, before returning again to thedarkness and swirling, frantic lights.

Bouncers raised a lot of questions about the nature oftheatre for me, and its place in society. In the era of theMeToo movement is it hilarious , for example, to stage a

couple engaging in drunken sex behind a nightclub? It is certainly played for laughs in the context of the work,but that raises some immediate questions Is it funny that the “woman” in the scenario is so disengaged anddesensitised by the sexual encounter that she sees pizza on the �oor of the alley and eats it? No. Perhaps itnever was funny, even in the 80’s in the UK. It certainly has a shocking in-your-face factor, and there were a lotof moments of the show that felt the same for me. Exposed and confrontational, and I wonder if that was notthe point all along.

We often talk about adjusting theatre for our modern age,and the context of the society that it will be presented in. Butwhat do we lose by making those adjustments? Do we losevaluable conversations? Do we, as a society, lose somethingsigni�cant if we put those works back on the shelf ratherthan viewing them as a product of their time, and then havethe discussions around them that still need to be had?

Undoubtedly this is a question that cannot be resolved by asingle review of a single show. But it is an importantquestion to be asking, and this production by HeartBeast

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BOUNCERS4/26/2018 Bouncers (QLD) - Theatrepeople


Rowan Howard

BOUNCERS HEARTBEAST PLAY QLD

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Weekly Wrap

made me ask this, and many more.

This darkly, satirically funny, confrontational and timelyrevival is a must-see piece of theatre. It’s rapid �re comedicdelivery, deft slapstick interludes and surprisingly tender, heartfelt moments of comradeship and togethernessmake for a wonderful night at the theatre, and is sure to stay with you long after you’ve left the Reservoirbehind. The season runs until 31 of March 2018 at the Spring Hill Reservoir, and you can get tickets atwww.heartbeast.com.au

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I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change (QLD) SHANE WEBB, MARCH 20, 2018

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BOUNCERS4/26/2018 On the town tales | Blue Curtains Brisbane

https://bluecurtainsbris.wordpress.com/2018/03/11/on-the-town-tales/ 1/3

On the town talesPosted on March 11, 2018

Bouncers (heartbeast Theatre)

Spring Hill Reservoirs

March 10 – 31

Itis with wrists stamped, that audiences appropriately enter into the reckless LED-lit, world of theBrisbane nightclub set that is “Bouncers” all the abandon that the show entails. Theobservational antic account of a Friday night from heartBeast Theatre, features four male castmembers, Chris Vaag, Campbell Lindsey, Peter Condon and Rowan Howard, dressed in suitand tie ensembles, playing all the parts…the four titular bouncers, but also four young men andfour young women all out for a night on the town. And just as the four bouncers themselves arevery different, so we soon see, every night has its own narrative too. From rugby louts to nightswhen the over ‘30s are let loose, there is no holds barred in this very funny but sometimesshockingly brutal portrayal.

Blue Curtains BrisbaneStories from the Stalls: Brisbane theatre reviews and reflections… by Meredith Walker

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BOUNCERS4/26/2018 On the town tales | Blue Curtains Brisbane

https://bluecurtainsbris.wordpress.com/2018/03/11/on-the-town-tales/ 2/3

There is no set as such, which suits both the style of production and its staging in the historic140 year old Spring Hill Reservoir under Wickham Terrace. This allows the action to movequickly as the actors skilfully convey their locations, from a late afternoon hairdressers to earlymorning nightclub toilets and all the stops in between. Clearly this is a demanding show withperformers barely off stage and frequently switching between characters, and to their credit, thecast all deliver the relentless energy required to bring the ensemble work to life. Under thedirection of David Paterson and Sherri Smith, the stage traffic is handled very well, allowing forthe four actors to enliven the work with engaging comic timing and sustained physicality,particularly as the female characters strutting hand-on-hip with handbags over their shoulders,and Rowan Howard is particularly memorable as still-teenager, Bicardi-boozing sexy Susie.

From late afternoon anticipation of a big night out to after-midnight woes of running tears andmascara and an early morning taxi (but not Uber?) back to Browns Plains, “Bouncers” makesfor an easy-to-follow set of stories that might be small in scale but is most definitely big inentertainment thanks to its multi role playing, along with the use of monologue and the actorsdirectly addressing the audience

When its UK playwright John Godber first wrote the play in the late 1970s, it was from adissatisfaction with naturalism and a desire to create a piece of work where the audience werenot distracted by the design elements but were engaged with the performances of the actors. Inconsideration of this, heartBeast’s “Bouncers” is a triumph. Although there is still an essentialUK feel to it, according to a +1 who knows, updates are seamless, meaning that Australianpolitical mentions and more modern references work well.

The play has a lot of often-laddish comedy in its primal ritual re-enactment, which might not beto everyone’s tastes, but underlying its strong language, and lewd and vulgar humour are somesharp observations about the drunken behaviour on display in the crude carnival of nightlife.Indeed, “Bouncers” is both a warning and a celebration, which in the hands of four versatileactors such as these, makes for an entertaining show to be enjoyed without too much audienceeffort.

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BOUNCERS4/26/2018 Review – Bouncers: a good show; gritty and funny | Absolute Theatre

https://www.absolutetheatre.com.au/single-post/2018/03/11/Review-%E2%80%93-Bouncers-a-good-show-gritty-and-funny 1/1

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Review – Bouncers: a good show; gritty and funnyMarch 11, 2018 | by Eric Scott

Right clockwise: Rowan Howard, Peter Condon, Campbell Lindsey and Chris Vaag. BouncersBy John GodberDirected by David Paterson and Sherri SmithHeartBeast TheatreSpring Hill Reservoir230 Wickham TerraceBrisbane Season: March 10-31. Running time: twohours including interval. Bookings:www.trybooking.com/book/event?embed&eid=333763 It was going back in time for the openingnight of HeartBeast Theatre’s production ofJohn Godber’s Bouncers. The play of course is set inand outside a London night cluband so patrons were all stamped on thewrist when we entered the performancespace! Ah for when we were young.The play was �rst performed in 1977 but ithas aged well and switched quite easilyfrom London to Brisbane with some neatlyedited text and a few local references. TheAussie accents were �ne too.It’s a good play; gritty and funny with anundercurrent of honesty, violence anddrunks behaving badly; and it wasengagingly put together by directors DavidPaterson and Sherri Smith plus a top�ight cast of experienced actors. It is rude,crude with simulated sex and language,but it is also hilariously funny.The show sees late night fun through theeyes of four night club doormen: the older and more experienced “Lucky” Eric (Peter Condon), the hyperactive Les(Campbell Lindsey), the not too bright Ralph (Rowan Howard) and the edgy Judd (Chris Vaag).But that’s not all, for the four men play 20 roles between them including, with the aid of handbags to di�erentiatecharacters, Maureen, Rosie, Elaine and Susie, a bunch of happy-go-lucky girls out to celebrate a 21st birthday, and thenlager louts Kev, Baz and friends who are also heading out for a big night on the town.Imagine the fun when the lager louts start dancing with the girls!These characters create a crazy laugh a minute show, but it drops into serious mode with Eric’s quartet of bittersweetmonologues that give us a look behind the stone-faced bouncer into someone more human and bitter as his marriagebreaks down and his wife becomes one of the night club crowd. He also gives us his insight to the many tragediesbehind the boozy facades.The small in the round (or square as the space is physically) stage, with chairs spaced within touching distance was wellworked by the actors. There was no room for a set but with minimal props and lighting the night time scene was wellcreated.The cast, each member a completely di�erent looking individual, switched seamlessly between characters and yetmaintained their major ones beautifully.Peter Condon was an excellent Eric. His face gave little away to his fellow bouncers, but we could see his careworn faceas he continued to do a job he does not enjoy and yet is not game to admit he is too old and give it away.Les, with his sideburns and slim frame earned all his laughs, while Ralph, always gleefully looking for someone to kick,was another facet to the four characters and I enjoyed Chris Vaag’s portrayal of the homicidal Judd, who was like theyoung bull, always trying to pick a �ght with the ageing herd leader.It is not a long play, which is probably a good thing considering all the physical comedy involved, but I had a ballwatching impeccable acting and comic timing that made this production so enjoyable,Bookings: www.trybooking.com/book/event?embed&eid=333763

Absolute TheatreWith Eric Scott

Brisbane entertainment and travel writer, playwright and novelistInsta: scott_media Email: [email protected]

Home Theatre Reviews Travel Tales Books and Plays Select Month

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BOUNCERSPERFORMANCE SPECIFICSDURATION

Act 1 – 50 minutes Interval – 15 minutes Act 2 – 30 minutes

SUITABLE VENUES

Suitable for a variety of venues – proscenium, black box, town halls

MAXIMUM NUMBER OF PERFORMANCES PER WEEK

10 performances

MINIMUM BREAK BETWEEN PERFORMANCES

90 minutes

LICENCING AGREEMENTS

The Bouncers script is under copyright

APRA OBLIGATIONS

The production uses music under copyright. Permissions and fees will be managed by heartBeast Theatre.

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BOUNCERSTOURING PERSONNELTouring party comprises six people.

• Mark Richardson - Stage Manager

• Paige Williams - Lighting Designer

• Peter Condon - Actor

• Rowan Howard - Actor

• Chris Vaag - Actor

• Campbell Lindsay - Actor

PRODUCTION DETAILSTECHNICAL EQUIPMENT REQUIRED - TO BE SUPPLIED BY VENUE

• Standard lighting setup and desk

• Standard sound setup and desk

• Strobe effects

• Mirror ball

• Smoke machine

STAGE REQUIREMENTS

Bouncers can be performed in a great variety of indoor venues - proscenium, halls, black box, in-the-round.

heartBeast Theatre will supply all costumes and props. No other staging or technical equipment is required.

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bouncers - artour · 2 bouncers company profile heartbeast theatre is a brisbane-based independent...

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