Gwyneth Goes Skiing, UK Tour Review
Reviewed by Charis for Theatre and Tonic
Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in exchange for an honest review
Gwyneth Goes Skiing is an audience participation comedy created around the real-life topic of the 2016 skiing accident between Gwyneth Paltrow and Terry Sanderson and the 2023 court appearance between the pair.
The piece is primarily set in Deer Valley ski resort, Utah where the incident happened, with the secondary location of the court. While originally finding elements of the performance to be comedic, running the same sort of jokes repeatedly does become old and not as engaging. A lot of the comedy revolved around ‘Goop’ Paltrow’s lifestyle brand adding in words like ‘Gooptastic.’ The element of putting ‘Gwen’ in front of a whole series of words becomes dry and unnecessary. Jokes around Paltrow’s daughter ‘Apple’ and about being in ‘Spiderman’ started to fall flat when repeatedly integrated into the narrative of this piece. Overall, the humour and the piece in general were rather juvenile.
Audience participation pieces can be rather funny as they differ each time they are run. However, the audience participation element felt forced and added no value. On the contrary to this statement was the audience member who played Brand Falchuck, who was hilarious and his small extra remarks like saying ‘no’ before saying the scripted line of ‘absolutely not’ really made the piece.
Joseph Martin was a great casting choice as Terry Sanderson and his elements of the performance held the most substance and humour. It was completely believable that Martin was an old, grumpy optometrist. The highlight is when the audience throws ‘snowballs’ at Sanderson as it feels mean and a little naughty but is ultimately something we all love to do.
Gwyneth Goes Skiing is touring across the UK until 21 December 2024.
★★
