Review: So Young

It isn’t just the presence of actor Lucianne McEvoy and director Gareth Nicholls which draws comparisons between So Young and the Traverse’s breakout Fringe hit of 2018 Ulster American. Like that excellent work by David Ireland, Douglas Maxwell’s play takes a moral conundrum of a situation which might almost be described as everyday, and ramps up the urgency of the conflict between its protagonists until it hits near-existential levels.

In this case, happily married and middle-aged couple Liane (McEvoy) and Davie (Andy Clark) are taking advantage of a night while the kids are at their grandparents’ to go over and visit their similarly-aged old friend Milo (Nicholas Karimi). What Davie hasn’t told Liane is that Milo has also invited his new girlfriend Greta (Yana Harris), the 20-year-old barmaid at his local pub; what nobody can guess is how Liane will react to this development, with her best friend, Milo’s wife, having died just three months earlier.

It’s not much of a spoiler to say her response isn’t positive, which opens the floodgates for an utterly immaculately observed comedy of modern manners. A great ensemble are on top form here, and Maxwell’s dialogue cracks out great comedic lines like a whip. Clark’s downtrodden but upbeat Davie is masterfully observed, while the cathartic speak-before-you-think rage McEvoy brings Liane is trumped by her beautiful mid-play speech on female friendship which gets its own deserved ovation.