This revival of Giles Cole’s 2021 noughties set comedy, which won the Best Play award at this year’s Brighton Fringe, presents two ageing couples who have been friends since they worked in variety.
Marianne (Carol Ball) and Joan (Judy Buxton) were in the chorus line (Joan was also Dance Captain). It isn’t so clear what their husbands Alfred and Charlie did, but Charlie (Graham Pountney) seems to have been a performer and Alfred (Jeffrey Holland) may have been on the production side, but that was all long ago. Joan now works in a cake shop, Marianne does short shifts in an amusement arcade and the men are well into retirement.
The first act presents the men meeting up for their daily pints in their local seaside pub, Alfie with his nose in the Sporting Post checking out the runners while Charlie gets the next round. Charlie still manages a confident façade and a glimmer of the charm that used to attract the girls, while lugubrious-faced Alf is more aware of his own ageing. Alf is unsuccessfully trying to remember the name of a TV weatherman from way back.
It is a problem all too familiar with those in late middle age: not remembering names or the precise word for what you mean. This provides gentle comedy (though for a little too long) before the talk turns to sex and when they last had it—and that leads to disclosures about past infidelities.
The second act is a duologue for the women. While the men seem content with their current lives, the girls aren’t. Their memories present a different past, there are more revelations with Marianne, who seems to be relying on gin and white wine to keep going, having plans for a different future.
Act three, set two years later, sees them celebrating Alf’s 74th birthday (though a day late) with things having worked out not exactly as expected.
After All These Years is a keenly observed portrait of what many face when they reach a certain age that also offers a wry nostalgia for the declining world of summer seasons and Christmas panto. While the menfolk look back to the glamour of showbiz, Marianne remembers the seedy side and a Snow White that only had six dwarfs: a second-class show and a second-class lover.
As director, Pountney has a light touch and as a performer is part of a well-matched team. The play doesn’t break any new ground but offers gentle entertainment and roles for older actors that this cast play with relish.