One Day When We Were Young Review

March 3, 2025

One Day When We Were Young Review

26th February – 22nd March 2025

One Day When We Were Young is a quiet, almost timid, play. We follow the relationship between two characters, Violet and Leonard, across three time periods starting during the Second World War. The first is the night before Leonard leaves for war; the couple are youthful and enamoured with one another, but we sense underlying fear in the air, setting the precedent for an intimate and vulnerable stage. We then meet the couple again years later, after the end of the war. The conversation is intentionally stilted, stuck in the conventions of British politeness. Lastly, we find the pair old and grey, meeting for the first time in years, battling their frail bodies and minds in a final attempt to connect.

“Cassie Bradley and Barney White embody these characters with utter ease and the chemistry between them was undeniable”

Cassie Bradley and Barney White embody these characters with utter ease and the chemistry between them was undeniable. Clearly both masters of their craft, their characters were instantly likeable and I was rooting for them throughout. It was a well-matched performance and a joy to watch them interact on stage.

Nonetheless, this was a quiet play. Unfortunately, a bit too quiet for me. Each character had to tempt the other to say what they really meant and, from an audience perspective, that meant it was too slow to stay engaged. Despite the odd quip here and there, which were always brilliant, whether coming from Leonard’s dry wit or Violet’s playfulness, it wasn’t enough to keep me interested in the story. When I laughed at Leonard bringing out a packet of Jaffa Cakes near the end, it was such a welcome relief that it was probably a bit over the top (a joke which writer Nick Payne also did in his most recent film, the fantastic We Live in Time – a clear winner of a gag. I loved it just as much the second time).

It’s a shame because the beginning saw this play as brimming with potential. Two incredible actors and a very moving story, but it just fell flat for me. I needed more moments, such as in the first part, when Violet and Leonard began jumping on the bed together, showing the free abandon of their youth. It is moments like this that injected some much needed energy that I began to crave later on.

Of course I appreciate that some of this frustration is intentional. This is a play about ‘what might have been’, showing a relationship that was interfered with due to the war. The silence on stage emphasises how everything else falls away when the couple are together, focusing as much about what is unsaid as much as what is said. But there comes a point when it appears less an intentional technique and instead just loses the audience. In the final part, Violet says to Leonard that it seems he has “no desire to talk about anything at all”, which follows about 10 minutes of them talking about nothing at all. I think a lot of the energy could be found in the direction; rather than the couple standing or sitting together on stage, more interesting movement and dynamics would help keep the story alive.

I really enjoyed the first half of this play, and with the talent of both Cassie Bradley and Barney White, it has so much brilliance waiting to be uncovered, but what begins full of hope just seems to wilt before us. Maybe that’s the point, but I think the pacing needs more work for it to be powerful.

One Day When We Were Young is playing at the Park Theatre until the 22nd March.