CONTACT: actitout@yahoo.co.uk

GENRE: Light Comedy Drama

CAST SIZE (M/F): 6F

LENGTH:  One Act

SUITABLE FOR ALL:    15 years +

The play is set in a ‘ladies only’ gym. Only one set is required. The staging could be minimal, not realistic by using simple props and basic furniture to establish to the audience what each represents eg chairs and weights at which women do a particular exercise for a short time, then move on to the next - similar to circuit training.

It follows the relationship between six women who meet in the gym as strangers and develop friendships by the common bond of exercise.

The action could be sometimes naturalistic and sometimes stylised.

Julie wants her husband back, but she knows that he has left her for another woman. Unbeknownst to Julie the other woman is Alison, who doesn’t know that Julie is her boyfriend’s wife because he hasn’t told her he is married.

Meanwhile there is the entertainment of Sheila’s regular updates on progress with her internet dating escapades. Her descriptions sometimes give too much information but are the source of much hilarity for the women in the gym.

Joan, the older character, a kind of matriarch figure, is the wise crone amongst the other ladies. She can read tea leaves. This impacts everyone-some favourably, some not, when they have a reading at the gym.

The woman realize that they are always either talking about men or their weight. They decide to talk only about the things that make them feel good. This leads to their sharing and sometimes trying out each other’s ways of ‘feeling good’. 

The play reveals scene by scene the women’s adventures including Joan’s willingness to go on a trip to the Lakes when she ends up breaking her hip.

In the last scene they are all gathering to go on a Christmas night out and discuss Joan’s recent hip replacement and what a pity it is she can’t join them.

In stylized form where each character speaks a monologue in a spotlight, we learn how far they have all come, and the progress they’ve made just by supporting one another, not only in the gym but in other aspects of their lives.

Just as they are about to head out, Joan appears on crutches and declares that nothing could stop her missing a special night out with her friends.

It is a ‘feelgood’ story which hopefully reinforces the way that women, whatever age or background, support and help each other to be and feel the best they can be.