That is the story of our beginning. And this is the story of…the end. Lovesong intertwines a couple in their 20s with the same man and woman a lifetime later. Their past and present selves collide in this haunting and beautiful tale of togetherness. All relationships have their ups and downs; the optimism of youth becomes the wisdom of experience. Love is a leap of faith.
Lovesong sees acclaimed theatre company Frantic Assembly join forces with celebrated writer Abi Morgan for a new play about lifelong love.
Directed by Frantic Assembly’s artistic directors Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett, the production will tour the UK, beginning on 30 September 2011 at the Drum Theatre, Plymouth, with a three week London run at the Lyric Hammersmith from 11 January 2012 (Plymouth press night 3 October; London press night 12 January). In addition to previously announced tour dates, new dates have been added at the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow in February 2012.
Lovesong is a collaboration between of some of the most exciting talents in British drama.
Abi Morgan’s writing for the screen includes The Invisible Woman, the Margaret Thatcher film Iron Lady, starring Meryl Streep, the flagship BBC TV drama The Hour and the BAFTA award-winning drama Sex Traffic (Channel 4). She has recently collaborated with Steve McQueen and Michael Fassbender on the upcoming feature film Shame. She previously worked with Frantic Assembly on the much praised Tiny Dynamite, and her other previous writing for the stage includes The Night Is Darkest Before The Dawn (part of the Tricycle Theatre’s Great Game season), Fugee (NT New Connections), Tender (Hampstead) and Splendour (Paines Plough).
Frantic Assembly’s celebrated physical style combines movement, design, music and text. Recent production highlights include Beautiful Burnout (co-production with National Theatre Scotland), Stockholm by Bryony Lavery, a radical reworking of Shakespeare’s Othello, pool (no water) by Mark Ravenhill, and Dirty Wonderland, a site-specific show for Brighton Festival.
Lovesong from acclaimed playwright Abi Morgan played at the Drum Theatre Plymouth 30th September to 15 October 2011, then opened in Washington DC in Autumn 2011 followed by a run at Sheffield Crucible from 19th October, before transferring to the Lyric Hammersmith, London where it was captured by Digital Theatre.
CAST INCLUDES: Leanne Rowe, Sian Phillips, Ed Bennett, Sam Cox
‘The result is a slow-burning meditation on time and transience. We switch repeatedly between past and present, as when William twirls the mature Maggie around the living room and the elderly Billy embraces youthful Margaret. This interplay is lovingly handled.
Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett, who share the credits for direction and choreography, create moments of gorgeous physicality. Ian William Galloway's elegant video design is full of swooshing starlings, and there's spacious music to define the mood.
But the writing is sometimes vague or twee where it needs to be vivid. The desire to speak generously of universal experiences robs the play of a dense and satisfying specificity. Of the characters only William - played with great conviction and fluency by Edward Bennett - feels truly magnetic.
There's sensitive work around him from Leanne Rowe, Sam Cox and the spry Siân Phillips. The production is deftly constructed, and some sequences are delicately balletic. Many people will find it deeply moving, and the subject matter is undeniably poignant.’
★★★★
The Standard
‘Lovesong by Abi Morgan is a textbook weepie which beats with such profound truth that you’re held rapt.
★★★★
The Telegraph
‘Morgan, together with Graham and Hoggett, has created a truly beautiful, thought-provoking piece of theatre, one that elicited sobs from many in the audience. It’s an elegantly crafted production, beautifully written and performed, and staged with real invention – but you may well need to take some tissues.’
★★★★
Exeunt Magazine