CityLife

Men of the World

Men Of The World
Oldham Coliseum
May 4, 2010

Record-breaking Yorkshire playwright John Godber – he of mega hits Bouncers, Teechers, On The Piste and etc – has always tended to pluck his subject matter from the life he finds around him and here he turns his attention to the older members of society.

So, as Godber himself ages – he’s now in his mid-fifties - stand by, in the next decade or so, for Prostate Power and Dementia Days.

Meanwhile, Frank, Stick and Happy Larry are three coach drivers telling tales of their adventures as they ferry their elderly holidaymakers on tours of the (in)continent.

In the manner of several of Godber’s previous, the cast of three – Sarah Parks as Frank the peacemaker, Robert Angell as the cynical Stick and Dicken Ashworth as demob happy Happy Larry – play a multitude of roles as they use just a few scarves and flat caps to become not only the drivers but also their passengers.

There’s a group of retired miners dubbed the Marx Brothers; a trio of fussy old ladies nicknamed the Beverley Sisters; a nervous and sickly husband and wife; a 46-year-old mummy’s boy and many more.

The cast manage all this with varied face-pulling and funny walks and the author directs with clarity and invention.  

His script is packed with many of the obvious cliché jokes of the English abroad, such as the woman who has made up 57 cheese sandwiches because she doesn’t trust the food in those foreign hotels.

In other words, in many ways it’s fairly typical Godber, aimed squarely at an audience that seemingly can’t get enough of him. 

But in this particular case, the piece also has a tragi-comic undertow that raises it to a higher level. There’s real sympathy and understanding here for people who have worked hard all their lives and can now only afford a cheap coach trip as a reward.

Much of the experience may be tatty, the people themselves may be irritating beyond measure but they are real and human and making the best of things.

It’s a comedy with heart, containing some quite devastating lines about the sadness of ageing and it’s surprisingly moving. Definitely one of Godber’s best.  

Until May 8, 2010. Coliseum Theatre, Fairbottom Street, Oldham. Tickets £5 - £18.50. Box office 0161 624 2829 or www.coliseum.org.uk.