“I don’t have a proper job. I’m just a 17-stone bloke who’s walking about thinking.”
You’d be forgiven for thinking that that’s a line from one of John Godber OBE’s 70+ dramas – after all, he’s a master of the art of pithy one-liners that summarise so much about any given character in very few words. But in fact, it’s Godber talking about himself in a Yorkshire Post interview.
Methinks he doth protest too much – after all, 70+ dramas can’t all and only be the result of “a bloke who’s just walking about thinking”. But then again, if that’s how Godber works his magic, that’s how he does it – and he does it very successfully indeed.
Godber is the third most performed playwright in the UK after Shakespeare and Alan Ayckbourn, with the massive list of works in his big, beautiful back catalogue (Up’n’Under, Bouncers, Shakers, Scary Bikers, et al) earning him worldwide success – and, fortunately for us, he’s not planning on stopping any time soon; Do I Love You? only premiered in 2023, but he’s already written another two plays since. But while time, it seems, doesn’t stand still for Godber, his plays have a way of suspending an audience in a time and place that we’re unlikely to forget.
Godber has described Do I Love You? as a love letter to the subculture that exists around Northern Soul, the music/dance movement that emerged in Northern England in the early 1970s. And indeed, if you’re not au fait with the genre, the drama offers a solid introduction to the spins, kicks, shuffles and backdrops that move along to that all-important music. But Do I Love You? goes way beyond offering a crash course into a very specific subculture cult.
Hull, circa 2023: the end of lockdown. Covid had changed the world, but little about life ‘up north’ had altered since the virus took a stranglehold. Barren high streets, padlocked pubs and high unemployment; limited opportunities, limited resources – grim limitation everywhere. But 20-something trio Sally, Natalie and Kyle have a liferaft to cling on to throughout it all: a friendship that unexpectedly leads to the discovery of how the music and lifestyle from a time gone can offer them escape from circumstantial restraints.
Chloe Mcdonald brings authentic sincerity to her role as Nat, the leader of the pack; her chemistry with the utterly charming Sally (Martha Godber – John Godber’s daughter – also doubling-up as Nat’s grandmother) tangibly substantial. As amiable, optimistic Kyle (doubling-up as seasoned dance hall ex-con Keith), Emilio Encinoso-Gil is the subtle bond that holds the trio together, keeping their love alive in more ways than one whether after their dead-end shifts in a fast food drive-in, consoling Nat after her grandmother’s funeral… or keeping spirits up on their long, uncomfortable journeys to and from various Northern Soul all-nighters. Because, you see, Nat, Sally and Kyle eventually dig deep into their own souls to find unlikely salvation, escape and connection on the dance floors of a former generation’s England, still thriving up north.
Left to right: Emilio Encinoso-Gil as Kyle, Martha Godber as Sally
There are no special effects or complicated scene changes to take us from drive-in to dance floor, or hospital to park, or bowling alley to bus; Godber (also directing) allows his three characters to rely solely on the resilience, wit and wisdom they don’t yet know they’ve got to tell their own stories courtesy of a script that bounces from realistically frank to ridiculously funny on the turn of an oiled sole. Meanwhile, the soundtrack – snippets of solid Northern Soul gold, from start to finish – is at once uplifting and nostalgic (nostalgic to those of a certain vintage, at least) and Sally Molloy’s subtly dynamic choreography creates seamless, perfect harmony behind and within every scene.
But overall, it’s the subtle deep dive beyond the banter into a depth-charge exploration of the survival of friendship, hopes and dreams despite the multiple pressures endured in lives lived at the cliff face of adversity that makes Do I Love You? the impactful, intelligent, poignant work of art that it is. This is theatre with soul.
Do I Love You? is on at Theatre Royal Bath until Saturday 2 August. Tickets here.
All photos, credit Ian Hodgson