Australian playwright Don Reid’s 2008 play ‘Codgers’ is all about the good times and the more difficult times that a group of friends share through meeting and working out at a local gym over many years. As a starting point for his play Reid has used his own experiences from being part of a group of friends who have met, and continue to meet, regularly for a gym work-out and chat for the last fifteen years!

For an engaging two hours of stage time we get to see the six men battle the gym equipment at their advanced ages, enjoy their jokes and repartee, and face some of their own prejudices and fears. Director Wayne Harrison, a former Artistic Director of the Sydney Theatre Company, has lost none of his touch, coming up with a breezy, smooth production.

The best aspect about ‘Codgers’ was that it gave good character roles to some of our finest older actors. who aren’t seen often enough on our stages. More’s the pity, because they gave performances that exuded presence, warmth and naturalness!

Reid’s characters were neatly contrasted with tensions well set up between them. Ronnie Falk played gruff Sgt Major Keith Fraser who, aside from his own issues, had problems dealing with newcomer Stanley Chang’s (Jon Lam) Asian background. There were sparks flying between Shane Porteous’s Rod Dean and Russell Newman’s Patrick Guiness, replete with headband, as they locked horns over opposing political beliefs. Edwin Hodgeman gave a poignant performance as nature’s gentleman Les Weston battling the onset of dementia. Ron Haddrick played the jokester of the group, Jimmy McMurtrie.

‘Codgers’ does not feign to be a weighty work. This is a well made play that authentically and poignantly portraying an ordinary group of middle-aged Aussie blokes, sweat, and warts and all, dealing with the challenges that life brings.

A Steady Lads and Christine Dunstan production, Don Reid’s ‘Codgers’ plays the Seymour Centre, as part of a national tour, until Saturday May 1.

20th April, 2010.