A complex exploration of grief, relationships, and growing old.
From its premise, ‘So Young’ (written by Douglas Maxwell) promised to be an emotional show. Revolving around a husband, Davie (Andy Clark), and wife, Liane (Lucianne McEvoy) visiting Milo (Robert Jack), who lost his wife Helen only a short while before. What promises to be “a great night reconnecting” takes a turn for surprise as Milo greets them with his new partner – Greta (Yana Harris) – who is over twenty years younger.
If those themes were not difficult enough to juggle, the individual relationships between each and every character are superbly and intricately written as well. With grief, age gaps, the awkwardness of enraging old friends, and social class all rearing their heads throughout this play, you’d be forgiven for expecting a performance devoid of comedy. However, Maxwell’s script subverts the stereotypical drama genre by engaging the audience with surprising moments of comedy and wit, augmenting the play’s fast paced action.
You don’t need to be middle-aged like the characters to be charmed and struck by the story that unravels. As a younger audience member, I wasn’t expecting to be hit so hard with the themes of growing old. Maxwell, along with the fantastic performances from Clark, McEvoy, Karimi and Harris, demonstrate the evergreen difficulties of what it truly means to grow up – yes, even for the characters in their forties. No actor was weak, each of them delivering a character that was uniquely intriguing, both in their internal struggles and in the dynamics developed between other characters.
The passion with which McEvoy delivers is not to be understated. Her performance, perhaps the most impressive, balances the grief of losing a best friend along with the fury directed at the man she perceives to be tarnishing her best friend’s memory. Particularly fascinating is the relationship that unfolds between her character and Harris’s: despite playing the younger character, Harris brings a profound sense of maturity and depth to the role that a less skilled performer would balk at.
Jack’s act as a mid-crisis, middle-aged, middle-class man is brilliant in his ability to elicit sympathy and frustration from the audience in a short time span. Understanding his desires to move on and the love he feels for Greta does not diminish the dislike he draws from the audience for the age gap of his lover or how quickly he has got over his deceased wife. These vying emotions within the audience kept us hooked, even if the character himself was not a particularly pleasant one.
And of course, Andy Clark, playing Davie, charms in his role. Equal parts comedy genius and deeply emotive, Clark draws the audience in with his range and the precision with which he delivers his lines. Despite being the less obviously emotional character, he is the character that perhaps the audience feels most deeply for: Clark delivers this role with the heartfelt grit that it deserves.
While the themes are heavy, the comedy and brilliance of every actor balance the performance out into something really beautiful. Don’t miss it: ‘So Young’ by Douglas Maxwell promises a night not to be forgotten.
Get your tickets here: https://citz.co.uk/whats-on/so-young/#book.