Bill of Health
Bill Of Health
The business seems to be an all-purpose symbol of Seventies ‘alternative” thinking becoming Eighties big business. When the tape I was listening on cut off, I was not pleased.
Nigel Andrew, The Times
First performed on radio, this stage version begins at the end of the hippy era when Si and Jenny take over a loft. Soon after seeing its suitability as a place for friends like Pete to work out, the business-minded Leah begins to realise its potential now that the ‘health biz’ is beginning to take off. Differing attitudes to their ‘golden egg’ threaten to tear the friends apart, but a suprising turn pulls them back together.
Photos
Script Excerpt
Leah: So who’s going to use the place?
Jenny: Friends like you … anyone local.
Leah: Spreading the health message, huh?
Si: Leah, it’s not a mission hall.
Jenny: We just decided to share it with people.
Leah: It must’ve cost a few bob.
Jenny: Worth every penny. –– Isn’t it, Si.
Si: For you, dear, anything.
Leah: I hope you’re going to charge people.
Jenny: Charge?
Leah: To get your money back. You have to charge.
Jenny: What for?
Si: The right to look in our wonderful mirror and fret about our figures.
Leah: I’m serious. It’s not just the mirror. There’s the rowing machine, the exercise bike, the shower …
Jenny: You try getting Si out of the bath in a hurry.
Leah: But you’ve made all the effort, and others will see the benefit.
Jenny: And we’ll have the benefit of their company. The whole idea was to share it.
Leah: Like Henry Ford shared the motor car? There were four of us in on this to start with. Now you’re talking like it’s a neighbourhood gym.
Si: Studio, please. Let’s still try to think of it as a studio.
Pete: That’s a point. Where’s your sculpture?
Jenny: It went the way of all his other grand schemes.
Si: It went with my extra teaching. To pay for all this.
Pete: Yeh but now it’s done …
Si: I have to see out the contract. Besides, every time I come in here, the place is full of heaving, sweating, bodies.