Wacko macho

Arts Club production loses
steam in the second act

Bouncers. Arts Club Revue Stage. Phone 687-1644 for ticket intorma-
tion. Arrive an hour in advance of showtime to get a decent seat.

mouthing off on a stage and you have the foundation for

| MAGINE MALE hormones incarnate gyrating and
the foul-mouthed, working-class British comedy Bounc-

ers,

The play is toilet humor ina
tuxedo. Precision-staged, with Las
Vegas-style lighting and punchy
sound effects, it's got the cocky
confidence of an athlete ina
jockstrap. If you recoil fram that

image in disgust you might end up
walking out on the performance
(just like a few other people).

lf, on the other hand. you don’t
mind low-life jokes, ga to the Arts
Club Revue Stage, order a beer
and enjoy off-the-bathroom-wall
humor.

What those who are offended
take exception to is the very thing
Bouncers pokes fun at: male
bravado. Beer-swilling, belching,
skirt-chasing, gonad driven pack
behavior. And for the females,
Singapore Sling-sipping, hair-
primping, wall-flowering and de-
flowering behavior. A parody of
the worst qualities of the two
sexes. Ugly, but funny.

Stephen Dimopoulos, Ronnie
Way, Thomas Mitchell and Bill
Croft play four bouncers in a night
club as well as various patrons
who float in and out of it.

Inside those thick-necked thugs
are four bored men, not necessari-
ly as stupid as one might think.
They have mastered the mind
games necessary to lord it over
undesirable customers.

Lucky Eric, the only philosoph-
ical element in the show, hides a
hypersensitive, explosive nature
under his calm, mean exterior.
Les, who Jooks big and tough, is
actually a softie. Ralph gets his
power from the martial arts, while
Judd — well, he’s more your typi-
cal bouncer: a guy with fittle grey

Barbara Black
THEATRE REVIEW

matter and overactive hormones.

The four actors flip in and out of
character, becoming in turn dippy
chicks, goofy adolescent boys or
obnoxious Oxford chaps. There
are no costume or set changes, so
clear characterization is
everything. Lighting effects are
lightning-quick and the improv-
style staging is positively athletic.

But sometimes the lower-class
British accent got lost in the
rapid-fire dialogue and half the
audience felt left out as the other
half guffawed over their drinks.

My major criticism is that the
second half of the show trotted out
the same front tine. The toilet
humor wore thin, perhaps because
the second half showed the
wind-down of the night’s antics
where characters went home
drunk, sick and unlucky. And the
ending was weak, but then how
do you end a tour-de-force of im-
personations?

Bouncers is entertainment, a
nightclub act. It ain't deep. But it
insults in an amusing way, like
seeing your pathetic adolescent
self in reruns.

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