Venue: Old Fitzroy Theatre (Woolloomooloo NSW), Nov 6 – 22, 2026
Playwright: Jane Upton
Director: Craig Baldwin
Cast: Thomas Campbell, Ainslie McGlynn
Images by Richard Farland

Theatre review
Jess and Billy have been friends since childhood, their intimacy sustained across more than forty years. It is a relationship whose longevity understandably invites commemoration. Drawing on playwright Jane Upton’s experiences with her oldest friend, Scenes from a Friendship nevertheless struggles to extend its significance beyond the private world of two resolutely middle-class, white English people. There are observations about the importance of enduring friendship, but the narrative remains largely unremarkable, however heartfelt its telling.

Director Craig Baldwin harnesses nostalgia effectively in the first half, aided by Felix Partos’ sound design, which interweaves defining pop songs from successive decades with evocative original compositions. As sentiment becomes more pronounced in the second half, however, the production grows paradoxically less involving. The exuberance of the pair’s younger years gives way to the disappointments and compromises of midlife, but the staging finds less dramatic vitality in this later terrain. Aron Murray’s lighting gives clarity to the passage of time, with occasional flourishes that lend theatrical texture to the unfolding chronicle.

Thomas Campbell and Ainslie McGlynn bring considerable soul to material that might otherwise feel pedestrian. Their sensitivity to the relationship’s shifting dynamics encourages our investment, although the performances themselves are often more compelling than the events they depict. At several points, the precision of their timing and the subtlety of their transitions offer greater fascination than the narrative, their frequently sublime craft supplying much of the production’s pleasure.

Alongside its account of an evolving friendship, the play examines the pair’s artistic ambitions. A shared imaginative life initially draws Jess and Billy together, before becoming a more fraught measure of their adult achievements and disappointments. Here, the production finds a resonance that reaches beyond the particulars of their bond. Uneven as it may be, Scenes from a Friendship makes a persuasive case for understanding success on one’s own terms, recognising fulfilment through an intimate and personal knowledge of what matters, rather than surrendering its definition to the judgement of others.

www.oldfitztheatre.com.au | www.outhousetheatre.org