"John Godber is one of the unsung heroes of British theatre, reaching the giddy heights of number three in the most-performed playwrights league table, nestled in behind Shakespeare and Ayckbourn" - Guardian Bouncers, a play about nightlife: "A show that's worth braving any front of house, however formidable ... simply spellbinding" Guardian Happy Families: "The inseparable contradictions of family love and oppression are carefully held in this fine comedy ... superb characterisation ... the rhythms of Godber's dialogue are freshly funny, the pace precise" Independent Shakers, a play about party-goers: "This is one of those slices of life that everyone can recognise and laugh at" Liverpool Daily Post

This volume contains three plays by John Godber: "Bouncers", "Happy Families", and "Shakers".

THE STORY: Staged with extreme simplicity, the play takes place in a provincial discotheque--the Saturday night haunt of England's disaffected youth. Using the device of four tuxedoed male bouncers (who also become a variety of other characters) t

Godber Plays: 4 brings together four recent plays by one of Britain's most prolific, popular playwrights. The author is the artistic director of Hull Truck Theatre and the publication is timed to coincide with the opening of Hull Truck's new theatre building in the heart of Hull. In Our House May, a widow, mother and grandmother, is packing up her home of 45 years and heads for a life in the sun. However, trading neighbourhood hell for the Costa del Calm is no easy task as memories are harder to let go than possessions. First produced in 2007, the play was revived and toured the UK in 2008. In Crown Prince (2007) Godber finds comedy in a bowls club, and against the backdrop of the advancing years of its members, issues of redundancy, bereavement and guilt emerge. Sold is the author's most politically charged play to date, exposing the misery of people-trafficking and women sold into the sex-trade in Britain. Christmas Crackers follows overworked A&E nurses Holly and Kath on a shopping and booze trip to Prague where things take an unexpected turn. 'John Godber's work is unique; he is able to speak to a very broad audience in a way that is thought-provoking, exciting and always very funny.' Hilary Strong, Executive Director of Greenwich Theatre

A third collection of plays by one of Britain's most popular and widely performed playwrights Up 'n' Under (winner of the Laurence Olivier Comedy of the Year Award 1984): Five unfit lads strive for sporting glory against the local pub-rugby champions, Men Behaving Badly meets The Full Monty. Perfect Pitch: Ron & Yvonne are seasoned caravan holidaymakers. Every weekend they head for the coast to get away from it all. Snug in a prized four-berth, theirs is the perfect pitch, until Grant and Steph set up camp beside them... April in Paris (nominated for Laurence Olivier Comedy of the Year 1994): Al is a builder - well he was until he got laid off. Bet sells trainers. Al spends hours in his shed painting while Beth is addicted to entering competitions in magazines. Neither has any faith in the other. Until one day, Beth win "a romantic break in Paris for two"... "John Godber is one of the unsung heroes of British theatre, reaching the giddy heights of number three in the most-performed playwrights league table, nestled in behind Shakespeare and Ayckbourn" - Guardian

Fast-moving and highly entertaining, Teechers evokes life at a modern school. Using the format of an end-of-term play, the new drama teacher's progress through two terms of recalcitrant classes, synical colleagues and obstructive caretakers is reviewed. Disillutioned, he departs for a safer private school.

"John Godber is one of the unsung heroes of British theatre, reaching the giddy heights of number three in the most-performed playwrights league table, nestled in behind Shakespeare and Ayckbourn" - Guardian Teechers: "In a class of its own ... Godber takes a hard-hitting look at life in a modern comprehensive where class conflicts, teacher tantrums and cavorting chaos runs riot through the corridors" The Express Happy Jack: "Godber manages with an affectionate and unerringly accurate ear for the tongues of the pit village to turn these two into a Chaucerian kind of celebration of life. At the end of the line the play is a sad, bruised but richly comic love story" Guardian September in the Rain: "The work of a genuinely talented playwright" Evening Standard Salt of the Earth: "John Godber has a special gift for capturing the lives and inner turmoil of the working class ... In the most subtle and incisive ways, he suggests how the combination of innate personality and a changing society determines individual destiny" Chicago Times