In a time when loneliness is increasingly described as an epidemic, British writer Jane Upton’s Scenes from a Friendship – which had its UK premiere just a few months ago – reminds us that the most important relationships in life are not always the ones you chose. They’re the ones you are gifted in childhood. 

Without friends, or removed from them – as many of us ‘blow-ins’ in global cities like Sydney are – there’s a strong chance you can go through life feeling only partly known, incompletely understood. 

Ainslie McGlynn and Thomas Campbell in Scenes from a Friendship. Photo © Richard Farland

Its the mid 1990s and Jess (Ainslie McGlynn) and Billy (Thomas Campbell), who have have known each other since childhood, are growing up in provincial Nottinghamshire. Both have stars in their eyes. Platonically joined at the hip, each is the other’s cheer squad as they jockey for parts in school plays and dream about becoming ‘proper’ actors.

From there, the play slides forward, decade after decade, charting their shifting fortunes as they navigate adolescence, sexuality, careers, family and the increasing physical and emotional distance that opens up between them. 

At first, Billy seems the most likely to succeed. He moves to London to chase the dream; only to find himself compelled into an acting-adjacent job. Jess meanwhile, stays in Long Eaton and lives a small town life. They begin to drift apart, but in her long text messages to Billy, Jess discovers her own voice as a writer.

They share triumphs, rejections, anxieties, jealousies and several misunderstandings, but beneath the banter and fallings out is an anchor chain-like bond that neither quite knows how to do without.

Ainslie McGlynn and Thomas Campbell in Scenes from a Friendship. Photo © Richard Farland

Upton has a terrific ear for the rhythms of long-standing friendship: the jocular shorthand, the teasing, and the particular intimacy that comes from knowing someone’s backstory almost as well as your own. The play’s episodic structure pulls you along like a good soap opera. 

Director Craig Baldwin keeps things lively and immediate, with Thomas Campbell and Ainslie McGlynn making light of the considerable work of carrying characters across decades. The accumulating weight of adulthood creeps in to each performance without us noticing. 

The installation of a temporary traverse stage at the Old Fitz not only brings the audience into proximity with the pair, it also always us to observe the impact of their stories on others. Yes, this opening night audience was stacked with actors and fellow travellers, but the laughter and tears struck me as both genuine and earned. As with all of Outhouse Theatre’s productions, you’re in the safest of hands.

Scenes from a Friendship plays at the Old Fitzroy Theatre until 22 November.