Theatre review: When We Were Young, Everyman, Cork

Directed and written by Marion Wyatt and inspired by her parents, this love story, set between the late 1940s and 1950s, is very much a period piece with plenty of attention to detail, from the old-fashioned perambulator to the costumes.

It’s a very busy piece of drama with cast of nine, some playing multiple roles. It’s a family saga as well as a romantic tale. The lead characters, Tina and Finbar, fall for each other. But Finbar, who works for the British Navy, is away at sea a lot which Tina finds hard. That is to be the pattern of their relationship when they marry in London and set up home. Tina is lonely and hankers after her native Wexford. It is a source of conflict for the couple.