Pam arrives in a new town and joins the local Easi Slim class. From the outside Pam seems to have everything, a successful husband and two ideal children along with the perfect figure. She meets Breda at Easi Slim and the two become friends despite their obvious differences. Breda has been going to Easi Slim for many months but hasn’t managed to shift a pound. Her husband and two children are not driven or hugely ambitious in life, but they obviously love each other. When Pam suggests the two go out power walking at night, it allows them to talk about their lives and open up to each other. We slowly see that appearances can be deceiving and that happiness is based on more criteria than the perfect figure.

This is a two hander, with Rose Henderson taking the role of Breda and Isobel Mahon that of Pam. The voice of Rosaleen Linehan also stars as the leader of the Easi Slim class. The stage is simple with a traffic cone and branches to form the roads that the two friends meet to walk on. There is also a screen on the other side of the stage, which allows for the various costume changes as Breda starts to shift the pounds under the guidance of Pam. There are many guilt trips along the way, and the calculator rarely leaves Pam’s hand, as she works out how many calories Breda had last night!

This is an enjoyable, fast paced comedy that moves along at a good pace. It is not Shakespeare, and doesn’t pretend to be. It is a simple situation comedy and aims itself at a ‘girls night out’ audience, as the vast majority of the audience were female. It would never be a critics’ favourite, but it had its audience howling with laughter. It is well paced and carries an important message at its core, that there’s more to life than the perfect figure.

Weighing In runs at the Civic Theatre from Tuesday, 20th May – Saturday, 31st May 2014 @ 8.15pm – Admission: all tickets €12

NOW ADDED SPECIAL LUNCHTIME SHOW: Thursday, 29th May @ 1pm (duration 60 minutes) – Tickets €10