As one-character quotes, nostalgia is not what it used to be, and author, Laura Wade uses this idea to explore feminist themes about the role of women as long-suffering wives and how women’s choices have changed over the last seventy years. We meet Judy played with a delightful playful charm by Jessica Ransom in her ideal Fifties home, dressed stylishly in period costume and lovingly waiting on her husband, Johnny, played by Neil McDermott, the family breadwinner who is “appallingly happy”. The setting, music and styling paint a picture of perfect marriage enjoying a Fifties lifestyle but (spoiler alert) when Judy pulls out her Apple laptop from a drawer, we realise that all is not as it seems.
Through a short neatly staged flashback scene we discover she adopted this lifestyle three years ago when she was offered redundancy from her successful job and that she is a smart fifties obsessed 38-year-old struggling to reconcile and understand the reaction of those around her to her own life choices and gradually the play explores the reality of the situation and the relationships with her husband, mother, work colleagues and friends. The writing is sharp and witty, the staging slick and well-choreographed and the characters well-developed and believable. The interplay between Judy and Johnny is beautifully handled drawing us into their chosen world and then blowing it apart as the other relationships test their commitment to both the lifestyle and each other and setting us to wonder whether their marriage can survive the tests. The challenge hits home when one character asks Judy “ what do you do all day?”.
