BWW Reviews: WHINGEING WOMEN, King's Theatre, Glasgow, October 9 2014

Whingeing Women wasn't off to a very good start. The week-long run at the King's Theatre was cut short and the opening night was less than half full. The show had been heavily advertised around Glasgow and I was disappointed by the lack of interest.

The premise of the show is four actresses telling many different stories and anecdotes from all different kinds of women. The show is billed as "saucy" but the material just made me cringe. I must add though that the majority of the audience were quite tickled by Gail Porter waving sex toys around onstage but it just wasn't for me at all. I found most of the show quite tacky and in poor taste.

The show flits between crude anecdotes clearly crafted for the "50 Shades" brigade and moments of trying to be sincere and hard hitting. Each segment lasts around five minutes and you have tales of abortion, date rape and domestic violence sandwiched between stories of dogging and sex in later life. The only part I found genuine was Gail Porter's own story regarding her alopecia and she received a huge round of applause for that one.

I did laugh on a couple of occasions but for the majority of the play I was just praying for it to end. It was also very Scottish, specifically Glasgow, so I don't imagine they are touring the show as it was obviously tailored for a local crowd.

While there are some decent ideas in Whingeing Women I found the whole thing too disjoined and in trying to be too many things at once- it doesn't really achieve any of the elements well. The script has been quite badly written and is relying a lot of swearing and older women using explicit sexual terms in order to raise some laughs. Don't get me wrong - a lot of people were laughing and did seem to enjoy it but it was just not my cup of tea at all.

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