Review: Bouncers by John Godber at Chichester Festival Minerva Studio

Told through the eyes of four bouncers, it recreates in a series of sketches the high and low points of those social gatherings.

Brutal in its pronouncements and yet rich with well-observed and appropriately coarse humour, it ignores no aspect of these disco and lager outings.

From women getting their hair done, to men exchanging drunken banter in the men’s cloakrooms, no detail in Godber’s forensically observed nostalgic journey is overlooked.

It won’t, of course, be to everyone’s taste - especially in Chichester.

There are those who prefer to wipe clean some memories from a previous existence - or for whom this world was always alien.

But the performances of Robert Hudson, Adrian Hood, Frazer Hammill and Chris Hannon, are all finely honed to their roles.

And this is a play - first performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1977 - that has stood the test of time.

It remains relevant today to a whole new generation of nightclub seekers - and a worrying reminder to those who waved goodbye to tacky nights on the dance floor some years ago.