JOHN GODBER   (1956 - )


John Godber
   Nationality:
British
   Literary Agent: *:
   Email:
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Plays by John Godber

JOHN GODBER
April In Paris
1st Produced:
Spring Street, Hull
1992
Company:
-
1st Published:
Samuel French, London
1993
To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
-
Comedy
Parts:
Male
1
Female
1
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
Bet and Al lead a quiet, humdrum life in their small Yorkshire home until Bet wins a 'Romantic Breaks' competition in a magazine. The prize, a holiday in Paris, represents their first experience abroad and has profound effects on the way they look at the world around them once they return home. They sort out French cuisine, wrestle with their phrase book, and fend off would-be muggers on the Metro in this hilarious depiction of the English abroad.
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JOHN GODBER
Big Trouble In The Little Bedroom
1st Produced:
Spring Street, Hull
1999
Company:
-
1st Published:
-
-
To Buy This Play:
I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
Genre:
-
Musical
Parts:
Male
-
Female
-
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
music John Pattison
Synopsis:
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JOHN GODBER
Blood Sweat And Tears
1st Produced:
Spring Street, Hull
1986
Company:
-
1st Published:
Samuel French, London
1995
To Buy This Play:
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(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
2
Female
3
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
Louise Underwood's life revolves around the hamburger restaurant where she works, and a night club: then she discovers judo. This inspiring play charts Louise's progress to Black Belt. Her personal journey involves numerous sacrifices, crises of confidence and battles with more experienced players who think she has no chance of success. A play about the opportunities given to ordinary people to be something special.
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JOHN GODBER
Bouncers
1st Produced:
Edinburgh
1984
Company:
Yorkshire Actor's Company
1st Published:
Chappell, London
1987
To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
-
Comedy
Parts:
Male
4
Female
-
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
Bursting with imagination and wit and presented by just four actors, Bouncers 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.
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JOHN GODBER
Bouncers 1990's Remix
1st Produced:
-
-
Company:
-
1st Published:
Warner Chappell Plays, London
1987
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
-
Comedy
Parts:
Male
4
Female
-
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
An all new, revised and expanded version of Godber's classic play.
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JOHN GODBER
Clockwork Orange, A
1st Produced:
Edinburgh
1980
Company:
-
1st Published:
Hutchinson, London
1987
To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
-
Adaptation
Parts:
Male
-
Female
-
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
from Anthony Burgess novel
Synopsis:
A particularly nasty tale of bully boy Alex and his muggings, rapes and murders followed by social rehabilitation with aversion therapy and ending in his growing up an integrated rich young man
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JOHN GODBER
Cramp
1st Produced:
Hull
1981
Company:
-
1st Published:
-
-
To Buy This Play:
I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
Genre:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
-
Female
-
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
Fringe first winner
Synopsis:
A weightlifter attempts to gain university entrance, but his graduation into sex and academia prompts his sudden suicide
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JOHN GODBER
Crown Prince
1st Produced:
Hull Truck
2007
Company:
-
1st Published:
-
-
To Buy This Play:
I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
Genre:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
4
Female
2
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
uses the low-adrenalin sport of bowls to take in a world where the weather is out of joint, and Hull is on the verge of being submerged.
- Dominic Cavendish, Dail Telegraph
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JOHN GODBER
Cry Wolf
1st Produced:
Rotherham, Yorkshire
1981
Company:
Yorkshire Actor's Company
1st Published:
-
-
To Buy This Play:
I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
Genre:
-
Play with Music
Parts:
Male
-
Female
-
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
music by the Angelic Upstarts
Synopsis:
based on the case history of a retarded youth who wants to join the army
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JOHN GODBER
Departures
1st Produced:
Lyceum, Sheffield
2001
Company:
1st Published:
2004
To Buy This Play:
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(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
3
Female
6
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
The Departure lounges of ten airports across Europe and America provide a backdrop of delays, dangers and frustration as two business executives, Jim and Steve, embark on a journey of self-discovery.While the easy-going Steve spends time on the mobile running a number of love interests, with the morals of a cat, Jim is determined to remain faithful to his wife Claire. The arrival of young Zoë changes all that . . . The anxiety of the departure lounge becomes all too personal for all involved, leading to a sad yet hopeful ending
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JOHN GODBER
Dracula
1st Produced:
-
-
Company:
-
1st Published:
Josef Weinberger, London
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
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Genre:
-
Adaptation
Parts:
Male
6
Female
3
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
written with Jane Thornton. From Bram Stoker
Synopsis:
A new adaptation of the most chilling story of all time. True to Stoker's original novel, Dracula is a fast-moving multi-layered masterpiece of fear. As a sudden and mysterious storm whips the coast of England, a young woman sleepwalks along the edge of a cliff. In the teeth of the gale, a ship crashes through the harbour entrance, abandoned except for an immense dog and fifty boxes of grave dust. The Transylvanian Count Dracula has arrived in England. Immortal only as long as he is able to drink the blood of the living, he pursues his victims with brutally devastating effect. From the remote wilderness of Yorkshire to a vast ruined castle near to London whose windows omit no light, the race to end Dracula's lustful power is underway, if only there is still time . ..
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JOHN GODBER
E.P.A.
1st Produced:
Hull
1982
Company:
-
1st Published:
-
-
To Buy This Play:
I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
Genre:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
-
Female
-
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
A caustic vision of the ever rolling and self perpetuating educational system seen through the eyes of a Comprehensive School teacher
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JOHN GODBER
Fly Me To The Moon
1st Produced:
Scarborough, Stephen Joseph
2004
Company:
-
1st Published:
-
-
To Buy This Play:
I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
Genre:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
4
Female
3
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
a bunch of no-hopers convened for a flying with confidence course in a 'regional airport'. They all come from Warrington or Milton Keynes via Rotherham. - Coveney, Daily Mail
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JOHN GODBER
Going Dutch
1st Produced:
2004
Company:
-
1st Published:
Samuel French, London
2006
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
2
Female
2
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
Fewer than ever travel to the continent by ferry these days and here's why: beery stag parties rolling abroad at Hull; ddodgy Neil Diamond impersonators in the lounge br; breakfast calls at 6am..
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JOHN GODBER
Gym And Tonic
1st Produced:
Derby Playhouse
1996
Company:
-
1st Published:
Samuel French, London
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
-
Comedy
Parts:
Male
5
Female
5
Parts Other:
or 3f 3m
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
Don & Shirley visit a Health Spa to relax and revitalise their ailing marriage in this bitter-sweet comedy
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JOHN GODBER
Happy Families
1st Produced:
49 theatres around the UK
1991
Company:
-
1st Published:
Samuel French, London
1982
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
3
Female
6
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
On his graduation day in 1978, John looks back over his teenage years with warmth remembering the joys, tensions and sorrows of family life in West Yorkshire. John, now older and educated, finds himself alienated from his working-class family who cannot understand his theatrical aspirations. An affectionate look at a ordinary family struggling with change
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JOHN GODBER
Happy Jack
1st Produced:
Hull
1982
Company:
-
1st Published:
in "Five Plays", Penguin, London
1989
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
1
Female
1
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
Fringe first winner
Synopsis:
weaves a fragmentary path through a couples long life together, the marriage of a Yorkshire miner in the 1930's
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JOHN GODBER
It Started With A Kiss
1st Produced:
Srping Street, Hull
1997
Company:
-
1st Published:
Samuel French, London
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
-
Comedy
Parts:
Male
2
Female
4
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
Set in the late Seventies, this presents five students on a drama teaching course and their discovery of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll
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JOHN GODBER
Julius Caesar
1st Produced:
2004
Company:
-
1st Published:
-
-
To Buy This Play:
I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
Genre:
-
Adaptation
Parts:
Male
5
Female
1
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
Original Playwright - Shakespeare
Synopsis:
Godber has taken a scythe to the piece to make it work for the cast of five, but left the story intact. And the quite brilliant edit gives the piece a real sense of vitality, manages the tricky feat of increasing the political intrigue and makes comparisons with modern day events all the more obvious.
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JOHN GODBER
Lucky Sods
1st Produced:
Spring St, Hull
1995
Company:
-
1st Published:
1995
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
Black Comedy
Comedy
Parts:
Male
4
Female
4
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
Morris believes that bad luck always follows good, so when he and wife Jean win two million pounds on the National Lottery it looks like things can only get worse! The cracks in their marriage widen, their relatives resent them and, whilst Jean keeps winning, Morris takes off to Amsterdam with an old flame - but will the prophecy prove true?
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JOHN GODBER
Men of the World
1st Produced:
-
-
Company:
-
1st Published:
Samuel French, London
2005
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
2
Female
1
Parts Other:
playing 18 characters
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
Preparing for a mystery trip to Scarborough ("she wouldn't book till Dennis told her where we were going") three northern coach drivers pass the time remembering more exciting trips from the past, such as the last one, down the Rhine Valley to Heidelberg. Stick hates his passengers and wishes he was doing the Spanish run instead of Johnny Mac. Larry is a Mario Lanza fan who's been making trips for as long as anyone can remember and Frank ("don't ask - it'll only shock you!") is their female counterpart. These three actors take turns playing an assortment of passengers, from the dotty old complainers to the retired miners seeking excitement too late and on too little money. Escape is on everyone's mind but no-one knows quite what they're escaping from and how to go about it . As Sissy says, it is "better going somewhere when you're seventy-nine than going nowhere". A touching, often hilarious, bitter-sweet play, full of John Godber's usual clever, perceptive view of "men of the world"
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JOHN GODBER
Moby Dick
1st Produced:
2002
Company:
Hull Truck Theatre Company
1st Published:
-
-
To Buy This Play:
I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
Genre:
-
Adaptation
Parts:
Male
2
Female
2
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
written by John Godber and Nick Lane
Synopsis:
Hull Truck's own spin on Herman Melville's classic tale, told from the perspective of ghosts of Hull's own maritime past and drawing parallels between the decline of the City's fishing industry with the desperate hunt for the white whale&
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JOHN GODBER
Office Party, The
1st Produced:
Hull
1992
Company:
-
1st Published:
Warner Chappell Plays, London
1995
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
-
Comedy
Parts:
Male
4
Female
3
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
Everyone has a different story to tell - or forget, in some cases - about the annual office party. John Godber's latest play pays a visit to the offices of Chapman & Howard, a small marketing firm, just in time for the annual bash when the traditional bonhomie quickly gives way to titillations and tears. From the opening moments, when the first eager few have arrived to kick off the celebrations of clinching a prestigious and lucrative account, we see the growing sense of both professional and personal frustrations among the copywriters, accountants, graphic artists, secretaries and the managing director himself as everyone tries to get into the party spirit, all the time misreading body language and other signals, culminating in a party night they'd all rather forget. Just who will show their face tomorrow - and more important, who won't - or will they simply let the photocopier's record of the evening speak for itself? The Office Party offers a hilariously funny yet poignant exploration of just exactly why
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JOHN GODBER
Oliver Twist
1st Produced:
Hull
1987
Company:
-
1st Published:
-
-
To Buy This Play:
I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
Genre:
Childrens
Youth Audience
Parts:
Male
-
Female
-
Parts Other:
Large Cast
Notes:
novel by Charles Dickens
Synopsis:
sinister antics of Fagin as Oliver asks for more
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JOHN GODBER
On A Night Like This
1st Produced:
Derby Playhouse
2001
Company:
-
1st Published:
Josef Weinberger, London
2002
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
-
Comedy
Parts:
Male
4
Female
6
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
Richard Jackson is middle-aged, middle class and seemingly content with his lot in life . . . but all that's about to change as Richard gets more than he bargained for when he gets the decorators in. The two decorators are the small family firm of Danny and Leo Hardy, two die-hard party animals with a devotion to Northern Soul music. So one night when Richard's family are away, his plans for a quiet night in with a Chinese takeaway and a bottle of wine quickly evaporate after a chance meeting in town with Danny, Leo and their respective wives. Suddenly Richard finds himself on a wild and unpredictable night on the town that has both hilarious and disastrous consequences for everyone as beer, infidelity, swinging and Northern Soul combine to make On a Night Like This truly a night to remember!
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JOHN GODBER
On The Piste
1st Produced:
Leeds
1990
Company:
-
1st Published:
Warner Chappell Plays, London
1992
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
-
Comedy
Parts:
Male
3
Female
3
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
takes to the slopes in this hilarious and insightful view of skiing holidays, complete with all the pretensions and frustrations. Chris and Alison, Bev and Dave are all beginners - they've got the designer salopets, but do they have the courage? The sexy, athletically-tanned ski instructor Tony is eager to put in some overtime, while Melissa, on holiday alone, is creating one too many diversions. Both on and off piste, passions are running high while the 'apres ski' brings nerves and insecurities dangerously close to the surface' Once the skis have been clicked into place, there's no stopping this fast paced and highly exhilarating play from the author of the hugely popular Bouncers
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JOHN GODBER
Our House
1st Produced:
Spring Street, Hull
2001
Company:
1st Published:
-
-
To Buy This Play:
I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
Genre:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
4
Female
3
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
Top of Page
JOHN GODBER
Passion Killers
1st Produced:
Spring St, Hull (reopening)
1994
Company:
-
1st Published:
1995
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
-
Comedy
Parts:
Male
4
Female
5
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
Despite misgivings about leaving his wife Gail, Tom joins his friend Andy on a holiday in Spain. Andy gets stuck in to the lager and grabs every opportunity for illicit sex, whilst Tom develops a profound and platonic relationship with Trish. Back home, Andy keeps his infidelity secret and life goes on as normal, whereas Tom tells Gail of his innocent holiday friendship and seeds of suspiscion are sown. . .
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JOHN GODBER
Perfect Pitch
1st Produced:
S Joseph, Scarborough
1998
Company:
1st Published:
Samuel French, London
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
2
Female
2
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
Revival
Synopsis:
Ron, a prematurely retired headteacher and his wife Yvonne, a middle-aged would-be marathon runner, have bought their first caravan and are trying it out on the Yorkshire Moors. Later that evening an elderly caravan appears next to theirs and the subsequent sounds of wild sex cause Ron and Yvonne to blush. And when they meet young working-class couple Steph and Grant, Steph invites Yvonne to a male strip show . . .
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JOHN GODBER
Putting On The Ritz
1st Produced:
Leicester
1987
Company:
-
1st Published:
-
-
To Buy This Play:
I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
Genre:
-
-
Parts:
Male
-
Female
-
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
televised as The Ritz 1987
Synopsis:
Top of Page
JOHN GODBER
Reunion
1st Produced:
Spring Street, Hull
2002
Company:
1st Published:
-
-
To Buy This Play:
I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
Genre:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
2
Female
3
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
music John Pattison
Synopsis:
Top of Page
JOHN GODBER
Salt Of The Earth
1st Produced:
Hull
1988
Company:
-
1st Published:
Samuel French, London
1989
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
5
Female
6
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
An affectionate and touching portrait of life in the West Yorkshire coalfields centred on the hopes, dreams and heartache of the Parker sisters, Annie and May, whose hopes in turn centre on May's son Paul and his academic success
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JOHN GODBER
Seasons In The Sun
1st Produced:
West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, UK
2000
Company:
1st Published:
-
-
To Buy This Play:
I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
Genre:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
4
Female
2
Parts Other:
doubling
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
John Godber's Seasons In The Sun is presumablya reference to the Terry Jacks pop hit from 1974, when the play is set. Drawing on his own experience, the play tells of two relatively innocent lads who get holiday jobs as dustbinmen while they wait for their A-level results. Spag hopes to get into Leeds Poly to do art, Paul has a conditional place at Bristol to do drama.The lads wisely don't divulge their arty farty inclinations to their fellow binmen, but the old hands quickly nickname them Bollock Brain and Pillock (which gives you some idea of their wit) and it's not long before Pillock has been duped into standing knee-high iii a blocked sewage pipe.
Georgina Brown, Mail on Sunday
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JOHN GODBER
September In The Rain
1st Produced:
Edinburgh
1983
Company:
-
1st Published:
in "Five Plays", Penguin, London
1989
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
-
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male
1
Female
1
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
Based on the life of his grandparents. Him in cloth cap and braces, her in headscarf and cardigan. Every year they go to Blackpool for a week.
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JOHN GODBER
Shakers
1st Produced:
Hull
1985
Company:
-
1st Published:
Chappell, London
1987
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
-
Comedy
Parts:
Male
-
Female
4
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
written with Jane Thornton
Synopsis:
Every town has its local trendy cocktail bar where everyone wants to be seen, from the local check-out girls to the chinless wonders, from the yuppies to the local lads tittering at the thought of a `long comfortable screw'. We are given a wickedly funny glimpse of this world by the four long-suffering waitresses who work there. Rushed off their feet, underpaid and overworked, they try to smile and help the difficult customers whilst coping with their own personal problems. A fascinating and often hilarious view of the reality which lurks behind the plastic palms and the pina coladas
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JOHN GODBER
Shakers Re-stirred
1st Produced:
Hull
1994
Company:
-
1st Published:
Warner Chappell Plays, London
1993
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Genre:
-
Comedy
P