You're Only Young Twice

Cope Auditorium - Wednesday 8th to Saturday 11th June 2005

Written By Robin Aldridge

Directed By Sylvia Fall

FALCONS FUN IN THEIR NEW SURROUNDINGS

Whenever you start at something new, be it school, work or even moving into a new theatre, what you want to be able to do is ease yourself in gently without too much stress. Take time to get used to your new surroundings. So it was that the Falcon Players eased into their new home at the Cope Auditorium in Loughborough with Ron Aldridge's comedy You're Only Young Twice.

It was nothing too taxing but then after the stress and chaos of moving from Stanford Hall, the last thing they or theyir loyal audience needed was something so manic so this gentler piece seemed ideal. Perhaps it was a little too gentle and easy paced at times. Some of the jokes were excellant others you could see coming in the dark with the lights off. But then perhaps thats just how it seemed to someone of my generation. The older generation, more representative of the core audience on the opening night seemed very happy so clearly they are already feeling right at home and in any case the corny jokes were probably deliberate.

You see that is just how the central character Brooksie (Brian Binns) is. With the death of his wife he has moved back in with his daughter Sue (Sarah Wolfe)  and her despairing husband Richard (Andy Holt) but is determined to live life like a rebelious teenage angain and is trying hard, too hard, to be the life and soul of every party going. He has his sidekicks in Rose (Liz Cox), Tom (Lawrence Holmes) and Julia (Janet Holmes) but it's the regular presence of his dead wife Grace (Rose Hayes) that keeps him from going off the straight an narrow.

The clever stuff was seeing the old timers being harrangued by the younger characters about their drunken exploits, the comedy coming from the role reversals. It probably struck a chord with many in the audience. Mind you, I totally sympathised with Brooksie, trying to remember your last movements after drinking for England; it's impossible.

John Smith, Loughborough Echo, 17th June 2005