The Way Old Friends Do - Birmingham Rep / Tour / Criterion

I saw this last night at the Park and I found it sloppily written ( with an occasional laugh out loud line), amateurishly acted - with the exceptions of Sara Crowe ( who found comic gold in some of her reactions and line readings) and Donna Berlin as the pragmatic stage manager. Mr Gatiss's staging is awkward and unconvincing. The initial meeting ( or rather reunion) between Mr Bradshaw and Mr Hallard happens off-stage and the awkwardness of their situation is dismissed very quickly. As for the rest of the play I suppose you could dismiss it as "a bit of fun" but there are hints throughout that Mr Hallard actually wanted to write a semi-serious play about lonely people finding themselves through a group effort. As the drama unfolds in the second act I sat there bewildered: Were we supposed to care about any of these people? Mr Bradshaw and Mr Hallard's lack of chemistry doesn't help. I just found the whole evening to be mildly funny and instantly forgettable. And to have the shortest of snippets of ABBA music between scenes and a longer excerpt for the bows makes me feel as if they're cheating ABBA fans of what they probably came for. 2 stars from me.