John Godber, writer of some of the post popular plays produced in Britain in the last 20 years, takes to the stage of Liverpool Hope University’s Capstone Theatre on Thursday 19 November as part of the 2010 Capstone Festival.
Godber, an honorary professor at Liverpool Hope, is Creative Director of the Hull Truck Theatre Company and author of 53 plays, including Bouncers (1984), Up’n’Under (1984 and currently touring with Abi Titmuss), Teechers (1988), Perfect Pitch (1998) and Sold (2007, a co-production with Liverpool Hope University).
The Capstone event will include a screening of his BAFTA-winning children’s drama The Odd Squad in an evening that promises to be both entertaining and provocative. There will also be time for questions.
Last year, Godber was interviewed at Liverpool Hope for an feature published in Arts Industry magazine. He said: “Shakespeare was popular theatre. It wasn’t low-brow and there was something in it for everyone. I start from the idea of attracting the widest possible audience to come and see the play.”
He tells of meeting a 16-year-old boy outside Hull Truck’s new theatre in Hull who asked ‘What is it, mister?’ When told it was a theatre, he asked, ‘What does it do?’
“My first experience of a film was Kes in Doncaster when I was 12. I realised then you could make films about kids from Yorkshire. Wouldn’t it be great if we got more people to go to the theatre than currently do? That’s a no brainer but they don’t go because they don’t think they are going to get it.”
Godber recalled inviting a group of builders to a 1991 Hull Truck show. They didn’t want to come but by the interval they admitted they had got it. “So I said, ‘What is there to get?’ A lot of this is to do with school, with being macho and the nature of being sensitive, of exploring the world of your mind.
"We all have that but the majority of the people in this country are excluded from it. They don’t think it has anything to do with them.”
An Evening with John Godber is just one event in the Cornerstone’s packed programme. It will appeal to theatregoers, students and anyone interested in the culture of today.
An Evening with John Godber, Capstone Theatre, 19 November, 8pm. Tickets £10 (£6).
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