Anna Burnside reviews a black comedy that 'rings terrifyingly true'.
It’s a tale as old as time. Man loses wife to horrible disease. Man then replaces her with a younger model - in this case, before he’s organised her memorial service.
Writer Douglas Maxwell opens the action with middle-aged couple Davie and Liane writhing beneath the marital duvet. There is some discussion as to who drives “the sex bus” in their relationship.
Then they get dressed and head round to their friend Milo’s for wine and takeaway. Milo has hinted that he wants to introduce them to someone.
Maxwell does not mess around. We learn, in quickish succession, that this someone is Greta, aged 20. They met on what Davie charmingly calls “a shagging website”. And it’s just three months since Milo’s wife, Helen, died of Covid.
Davie, wonderfully played by Andy Clark, deals with this awkward situation by looking through Milo’s records. It’s Liane, still raw and grieving for her dear friend, who lets off the fireworks.
Lucianne McEvoy aims and does not miss, pouring out rage, frustration and disbelief. It’s a tremendous performance, nuanced and human.
While the living room setting of So Young is familiar from Pinter to Yazmina Reza’s God of Carnage, Maxwell keeps it fresh and contemporary, with observations as sharp as Liane’s tongue.
The casting is perfect, with Liane played by Yana Harris as a self-contained (if quite annoying) young woman in jeans and a t-shirt, not a siren in sequins. Nicholas Karimi completely convinces as the kind of man who would sign up to a shagging website in the weeks after his wife’s death.
And if the ending does not completely convince, the very Scottish use of black comedy and sex to cope with death rings terrifyingly true.
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So Young performs at the Traverse Theatre until August 25, 2024. For specific performance times, check the theatre’s website.
Photo by Aly Wight.
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