Gym Party **

Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2013

EXCERPT: "Whilst the performers did speak their words with commendable fluidity and poise, and whilst the script was well written (albeit a bit repetitive at times), the purpose of the piece needed some radical overhauling and consideration."

Gym Party is an absolutely bizarre show. Part monologue, part competition, the three performers – Chris, Jenna and Jess – have several rounds they get scored on before an eventual winner for the performance is announced. They start off by telling us some personal memories and talking at us about the nature of winning. After an episode where they play a number of ridiculous games, including stuffing their mouths with as many marshmallows as they can and pushing a ping pong ball across the stage with their nose, a faceless adjudicator announces round two. We, the audience, are asked to vote for the person we think is the prettiest, the richest, the most trustworthy, the one we’d save if two had to die. Uncomfortable as this is, it’s interesting to see which questions provoke such discomfort, and to consider how and why we feel it. By making us vote in this way, the three performers try and suggest we are responsible for the character and appearance assassinations that ensue for the losers. This moment, too, pushes the boundaries of what we expect from theatre and the distances that we expect will be maintained. The truthful cruelty of what they say about one another is truly horrible to watch.

The premise offers many talking points – indeed, of all the shows we watched, we returned to Gym Party more than any other - and it was interesting to see the different responses from audience members it provoked. Whilst there were several interesting features, I have a number of very fundamental criticisms to make. The silly games of round one are pointless, require no talent, and made me feel that it would have been more appropriate if the show had been part of the Free Fringe. The most crucial flaw of the piece though is that the main premise hadn’t been developed sufficiently. Bar the question about which of the three was the prettiest (the question I felt most uncomfortable answering), we didn’t know enough about the performers for our votes to be at all meaningful. If it had been a better developed psychoanalytical test to examine how we respond to different confessions or behavioural traits, the self-examination they craved us to do would have been more telling. Instead, we never fully entered into the story they told.

Whilst the performers did speak their words with commendable fluidity and poise, and whilst the script was well written (albeit a bit repetitive at times), the purpose of the piece needed some radical overhauling and consideration.