LIGHTER evenings, warmer weather: it’s coming up to the time of year for weekends away, family get-togethers, and reunions with distant friends. It’s also a time of year for revisiting traditions – seeing people in a familiar setting is comforting yet also sheds light on the imperceptible balance of what’s changed and what’s stayed the same.

So let us wander towards On Golden Pond where married couple Norman and Ethel Thayer are returning to their summer home for the 48th year.

With their annual trip comes the break from the normal routine and into the summer one, where nothing changes… yet Norman and Ethel are changing. The couple are hoping for a quiet summer, yet disruption is on the horizon in the form of a troubled young man from a very different generation.

Ernest Thompson’s play explores, amongst many other things, the shock of a change in routine, and how upheaval may shake us out of the predictable in a beneficial way… no matter how much we are set in our ways. It’s also an affectionate celebration of the benefits of intergenerational friendship.

On Golden Pond is a beautifully simple story that leads us to (ahem) ponder the nature of ageing and the passage of time. The Playhouse’s production marks the 40th anniversary of the play’s opening, and it hasn’t lost any of its relevance, humour or warmth – it still touches audiences, as it has since the seventies, with its simple tale of familial warmth. Viewers of the famous 1981 film adaptation with Katherine Hepburn and Henry Fonda will know that it’s an ode to families and all the trials, troubles, love and affection contained therein.

There’s an appropriately golden glow around the production too: the humour is warm, the subject matters carefully handled, and some of our best-known faces are in the lead roles – Damien O’Keefe, Jan Thomas and Yvette Huddleston to name but a few.

So if you’re waking up to spring, fancy expanding your routine a little, and don’t usually venture to the theatre, why not use this beautiful production as a little something to stir you out of your usual routine.

On Golden Pond runs in the Playhouse’s Wharfeside Theatre from Wednesday, April 17th to Saturday, April 27th. Tickets for all productions can be bought online at www.ilkleyplayhouse.co.uk, or by calling 01943 609539 during our opening hours.

by Claire Emmott