John Godber and pop theatre

John Godber aims to create pop theatre. In what ways does his play ‘Teechers’ achieve this?

John Godber is from the Northern part of England in Yorkshire, his father was a miner, he was seven years old when he first went to the theatre to watch a dance piece and that made him very interested in theatre.  He was first interested in sports and working out but then he went to a drama school called Bretton hall because he had a real desire to interest people in real life plays that highlights real life problems in his society, he also had the desire to communicate the importance of drama, theatre and culture. He didn’t fit in at his school because of his look, people thought he was there for the bricklaying course because he was very Hench due to his interest in weightlifting.

  He wanted to make a type of theatre that can access everyone (pop theatre) in order to communicate stories about ordinary street life.

John Godber was labelled as a Northern playwright because he was from the Northern part of Ireland, he didn’t like that because he wrote his plays based on what he knew and he always wrote about / responded to unfairness in society. When he then left drama school he started his own theatre company called Hall truck Theatre which made him more interested in writing plays about the underdogs which he has always had sympathy for.

Godber failed his 11+ exam, this exam decides what type of school you could go to, he believed that if he had passed his exams he would have been a solicitor but because he failed and he had to go to a comprehensive school which had drama as a compulsory subject. He believed that “having the art of curriculum in the centre was important because kids were able to express themselves”, He also believed that “the government and the politicians made the gap between the poor and the rich go wider”.

Godber knew that doing his plays was about bringing normal people in, regardless of their status. He wanted to make plays that are physical rather naturalistic, which is why the play Teechers has different acting styles and techniques. For example;

• The style of the play is episodic.
• Minimal set and props in order to make the scene changes fast.
• The theatricality of the play is self-conscious (change of character on stage).
• Direct addressal to the audience.
• Multi rolling.
• Caricatures - exaggerated characters in order to create a comic effect. 

What is pop theatre?

Pop theatre is for everyone both older and younger people, the less privilege and the upper class. It consist of contemporary music in order to engage the audience and it contextualise the piece within a specific time period – the music within the piece is used for transitions between one scene to the other.

 The physicality of the play is good to watch and it makes the energy of the piece stronger due to its fast pace and multi rolling and this keeps the audience engaged. Whilst the acting style is more of the heightened stereotypes in order to bring comedy to the piece whilst conveying a strong message of how the misrepresented / underdogs weren’t given a voice, he was like their voice. He used comedy to convey strong messages that other people like the upper class people weren’t aware of and the direct addressal to the audience gets them involved and thinking. He was rebelling against / challenging the views of the politicians which got people to be more interested in his piece as they knew they could relate and he was supporting them by giving them a voice.