Scenes from a Friendship review – a platonic One Day that will melt your heart

Nottingham PlayhouseTeenage crushes, breakups, careers, kids, fallings out and unbreakable loyalty – Jane Upton gives us a sweeping story of two best mates Imagine if One Day was set in Long Eaton. Now, take its sweeping, time-spanning love story, but make it platonic, and about two theatre-obsessed best mates. That’s the foundation for Jane Upton’s luminous, heart-exploding play, which catches Jess and Billy in a series of snapshots across their friendship. Beginning in the early 90s, during their school days, and then moving through their 20s, 30s and into their mid-40s, the play threads together teenage crushes, career decisions, breakups, marriages, births and children. Jess (Katie Redford) is an oversharer while Billy (Benedict Salter) has secrets. Their early years together pass through play rehearsals, parties, personal revelations and betrayals, but even in their lowest moments, the two are always pulled back to each other’s side. As their lives move in different directions, with Billy heading to London for drama school and later building a career as a high-flying agent, and Jess staying at home in a “suburban bubble” before eventually tiptoeing her way back int