One Day When We Were Young by Nick Payne. Park 90, `3 Clifton Terrace, Finsbury Park, London N4 until 20 March 2025, 4☆☆☆☆. Review: William Russell.

Photo Credit: Danny Kaan.

One Day When We Were Young by Nick Payne. Park 90, `3 Clifton Terrace, Finsbury Park, London N4 until 20 March 2025,

4☆☆☆☆. Review: William Russell.

“An affecting tale.”

Leonard and Violet are in love and this is their first night together. It is 1942 and bombs are falling and he is scared about whether they have a future – he is off to war, will he return? She is quite simply in love. The war ends and he meets her again but while he was away she has married someone else. They next meet fifty odd years later. She has written a book about life in wartime which he happened to read about in a magazine somehow or other has managed to contact her. She has decided, much against her daughter's wishes, to visit him. Payne's play, first staged in 2009, is a touching story told in three scenes in which we see how Violet has changed over the years, while the always diffident and very simple Leonard has not. She has matured, knows what she is doing even if she has grown more feeble, but he, to know what she is doing is what she wants to do, but while still handsome and without guile, he is now in the early stages of dementia, living alone without, as she discovers, any access to backup support. Will they at last end up looking after one another? There is no resolution to that but they do end celebrating their love. Cassie Bradley manages to transform herself from the young Violet to the old woman perfectly while Barney White, a hunky if not very bright Leonard to start with, ages into a sad, but determined survivor puzzled by the fact that things can go wrong – his failure with the mechanical corkscrew when opening a bottle of wine for instance - with equal skill. He knows what it is for but not how to use it. They hold the attention but the play does go on a shade too long as there are at least three moments towards the end when it could have stopped without affecting what it has to say about love that endures in spite of what the fates decreed for the lovers. Director James Haddrell has managed the encounters effectively helped by a clever set which transforms – with a little help from the lovers – into the different places they meet. And yes, you do get to hear that song when – possibly something one wonders about – Leonard produces a keyboard at which Violet sits down to sing it. Cheap music, to quote another play, can be potent and while a mite contrived as a happening it is very affecting.

Cast

Cassie Bradley – Violet

Barney White – Leonard

Creatives

Director – James Haddrell

Designer – Pollyanna Elston

Lighting Designer – Henry Slater

Sound Designer – Aidan Good