Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough – until 19 October 2019
Reviewed by Sara Garner
3***
Written and directed by John Godbear, Gym and Tonic has been updated from its initial outing in 2005. We meet Don (Peter McMillan) and Shirley (Stephanie Hacket) attending a tai-chi class at the prestigious Scardale Hall Health Farm. They are there for a week for some rest and relaxation and to try and fix their failing marriage. Don is a pessimistic sarcastic stressed man who is shortly celebrating his 40th birthday. Shirley is his dissatisfied bored wife. They have left their 2 children at home with Don’s Mum. Don is stressed about how much money this is all costing while Shirley is cramming as many treatments in as possible. He has no self-awareness of how stressed he is.
It is a play that takes a bit of time to get going, and still doesn’t seem to move into top gear at any stage.
There are two comical scenes where the anxious and awkward Don goes for a massage, he is reluctant to get undressed in the first treatment and strips off in the second treatment to be told by Cloe (Stephanie Hackett) ‘that it’s not that type of massage’ with a deadpan delivery. An uncomfortable empathy ensues between client and therapist. And we realise that the staff are not happy with their jobs either.
We see Don and Shirley examine their relationship along with fellow guest Ken whose character comes across as monotone with no peaks and troughs (Robert Angell) and eccentric Gertrude (Jacqueline Naylor) whose character was refreshingly honest but also quite opinionated in her views. A steady performance with witty value in all scenes she was involved in.
We watch as Shirley becomes increasingly desperate to get more out of her relationship, mentally and physically, whilst her husband Don demonstrates a lack of insight or interest.
I would like to say that we became connected to the characters and the story, however the plodding pace and slightly two-dimensional characters made this a bit difficult. Most of the humour came from Don and a porter Keith. However, the humour could be described as amusing, not funny.
In the last scene Don has a meltdown, insisting that HE never gets to do what HE wants to do and never has been allowed to do what HE wants to do. His answer to this is to get a caravan. Is this a euphemism for getting away from it all? It sends Shirley into a spire of despair.
However, the principle actors all performed admirably and managed to lift the play enough to make it interesting enough.