JOHN Godber’s Bouncers was premiered more than 20 years ago, but it certainly wasn’t showing its age when Reform Theatre Company brought it to The Courtyard last Wednesday.

A lot has changed since the mid-1980s but there’s a lot more that hasn’t, and all that’s stayed the same about the Friday night out on the town is here, closely and comically observed.

The comedy is broad, breathtakingly crude at times, but counterpointing the set pieces that on Wednesday generated raucous laughter throughout the main house, were Lucky Eric’s 'speeches'. Short, sincere and heartbreaking, these four monologues reveal the sadness underlying Eric’s hard-man exterior as well as the sordid underbelly of the no-holds-barred Friday night at the disco, the despair and emptiness behind the drunken fun and frantic humour.

This was an outstanding piece of ensemble theatre - all four creating not just memorable bouncers, but two unforgettable quartets of drunken youths and girls, with Kivan Dene’s Sexy Susy and Keith Hukin’s jilted girlfriend raising the biggest laughs of the night.

Acutely observed and brilliantly played, Kivan Dene, Keith Hukin, Richard Marriott and David Walker provided another Hereford audience with a further example of the great drama characterising the current season at The Courtyard.