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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.

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