In Men of the World, I think John Godber has wonderfully captured  the atmosphere of the coach trip, in this case to the Rhine.  He manages to pick up the conversations of a set of characters who travel overland from their Yorkshire homes to Germany.  What he does well is portray the humour in lovely one liners.  Men of the World  follows the format of Godber’s Bouncers where three actors play a range of characters.   In this case the ‘men’ were actually two men and a woman, and much of the humour came from the fact that they were playing people of either sex.  I think there are some wonderfully funny moments in this production.   However, it is the drivers which are the most rounded characters.  The problem I had with the other characters was that they were too stereotypical and even though there were comments towards the end of the play that all the passengers were lovely decent people, it didn’t really change the fact that they had been played as comic types.  Personally, I found some of the characterisation was a little uncomfortable such as the landlords of the Bed and Breakfast and Martin the over mothered young man.  

With Godber’s work, you know what you’re going to get.  On the evening, I went to do see this production, the audience clearly loved it.

Hull Truck Company John Godber Men of the World York Theatre Royal Hull Truck Company John Godber Men of the World York Theatre Royal