Waiting for Gateaux
September 25, 2007
Theatre Royal, Newcastle
The writing team of Ed Waugh and Trevor Wood scored an enormous success with their second play Dirty Dusting which opened at the Customs House, South Shields before the late Peter Sarah arranged a transfer to the Theatre Royal , in turn this led to a sell out tour, with dates in Australia being planned.
Waiting for Gateaux (their forth play following Raising the Stakes) again started life at the Customs House and has transferred across the river to the Theatre Royal, before a planned UK tour next year.
Set in a Yorkshire village hall the club has hardly any equipment and classes only last a matter of seconds until the class is bored and move on to another exercise. With no motivation, no equipment and no members this must be the world’s worst health club.
Maureen (played by Sally Bankes) who runs the club does not take weight loss as a serious matter and even advertises for members in the cake shop window. When Sophie arrives promising to put the club on TV, Maureen and her friend Jackie are all for the idea, until they discover it has all been a ploy to close the club. Along with the only male member, Donald, who only comes to the club as he fancies Maureen, and a young girl called Raven, who does not want to be there, they decide to fight back.
The idea is reminiscent of the stage play Stepping Out, set in a village hall , where each member has their own story to tell and you know the sole male member will come good in the end.
The cast of five work extremely hard and there were plenty of belly laughs from the packed audience but overall this play does not have the edge of Dirty Dusting.
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