One Day When We Were Young – Park Theatre, London

A revival of a play by Nick Payne, One Day When We Were Young is filled with the pathos of what could have been.

One Day When We Were Young

On a quiet Monday evening I made my way to North London’s Park Theatre, to see a play I thought would be a sombre but compelling look at a relationship across the decades.  Its title taken from WWII-era song, One Day When We Were Young is a revival of a play by Nick Payne.  The Park Theatre production is in association with Greenwich Theatre. 

If the name Nick Payne seems somewhat familiar, it could be because he also wrote Constellations, which we saw in its mega four cast version a couple of years ago.  Is it because of that precedent I expected something sombre yet compelling?  Perhaps.  Or it could have been the description of Violet (Cassie Bradley) and Leonard (Barney White) spending a poignant night together before he is sent off to war, then tracing their relationship over the ensuing decades.  

There are certain elements which are consistent in what I know of Payne’s work.  Scenes from the arc of a relationship, notably.  Although that theme keeps many a writer in business, to be fair.  One Day When We Were Young is perhaps more linear in its storytelling than some of his other work (he also wrote the screenplay for recent film We Live in Time).  We meet Violet and Leonard at three points in their lives.  That first evening which also their last; in the 1960s when their paths have diverged; and in 2002 when they meet once more in Leonard’s dingy Luton flat.  An emotion permeates each.  Their fear of the future.  His anger at what is and what might have been.  Her sadness, or perhaps regret, at the end.  It’s not just sombre, it’s crushingly sad.

Stiff Upper Lip and Stiffening Joints

With that emotional element in mind I think this would be a play that’s easy to overdo.  But this production, with James Haddrell at the helm as Director, is restrained.  The performances by Bradley and White are more effective for what they hold back and the distance this creates between their characters in each scenario: theirs was the generation of the stiff upper lip, after all.  One Day When We Were Young requires its actors to either do some quick shifts in makeup and costume, or rethink how to portray age and ageing.  Here we have the latter.  It’s done quite effectively, particularly when it comes to portraying growing emotional maturity over the years.  Pollyanna Elston’s flexible set also changes with the years.  I did rather wonder why Violet and Leonard were dismantling their bed rather than taking shelter from an air raid at one point, but overall it’s a very neat solution.

With the 80th anniversary of the end of WWII fast approaching, it’s an interesting choice for a revival.  Towards the end of the play Violet wonders why people don’t seem to take an interest any more in this chapter of history.  Life moves on, they suppose.  Except when – through death or disappointment – it doesn’t.  A chance to reflect on the different disruptions of war, and perhaps to apply that to the context of what’s going on in the world today.  

Salterton Arts Review’s rating: 4/5

One Day When We Were Young on until 22 March 2025. More info and tickets here.