One Day When We Were Young – Park Theatre
Opening with a bang (both literally and lasciviously) but ending with a whimper, One Day When We Were Young illustrates a little too effectively that for war’s hollow men, life is very long.
The framework of the script is slightly too frail to support both its underwritten characters. Like the Titanic’s infamously splintered door, this play can only hold up one of its young lovers’ character development. Resultantly male lead Barney White gets to cut his teeth on a sturdily written World War II conscript while Cassie Bradley exhausts her jaw attempting to chew through all the scenery provided to the young lover turned middle aged mother turned elderly author who plays second fiddle to him throughout. Designer Pollyanna Elston’s set is surprisingly rich but unfortunately clashes in palet...