Sydney Reviews

Grief. It’s the thing for get-togethers.

In Douglas Maxwell’s So Young, recently widowed Milo has invited old friends, Liane and Dave, over to his place for the first time since the death of his wife, Helen, three months ago. Helen succumbed to ovarian cancer after complications with Covid. She was forty-five. So young.

Helen’s death was a seismic shock to the surviving trio and yet another emotional earthquake is in store when Milo introduces Greta, the new love of his life. She’s twenty. So young.

Liane is livid, flummoxed with fury that Milo can so quickly re-couple, incensed that her deceased best friend can so easily be replaced. Her estimation of Milo is reduced to a cliché of older man and younger woman, an archetype. So Jung.

A drama of discomfort, a comedy of conflict, So Young see-saws its crisp eighty minutes of furious conversation and indignant argument with strenuous subtlety, a Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner for our times.

Ainslie McGlynn is sensational as Liane, the driving force of the play, a performance that ranges from simmering to boiling, from conflagration to quell. Jeremy Waters is excellent as Dave, a man caught in the middle of spousal allegiance and old friendship fidelity.

Henry Nixon as Milo, surprised as anyone at the suddenness of his new relationship and painfully aware of pernicious perception of the situation, plays a fine tightrope of detailed pathos. And Aisha Aidara shines as Greta, vital, vibrant, wise beyond her years. So young.

Production values are of high standard with set & costume design by Kate Beere outstanding, evocatively augmented by sound designer & composer, Johnny Yang, and Aron Murray’s lighting.

Under the deft direction of Sam O’Sullivan, So Young marks the Australian premiere of one of Scotland’s most celebrated and performed contemporary playwrights, the not so young, Douglas Maxwell.

On the strength of this exciting production, we can only hope to see more of his work produced here.