Lovesong (Oberon Modern Plays)

Product Information

This worked particularly well in the scene where Bill and Maggie are laid on the bed, and Margaret and William are sat, perched up against the end of the bed. He touches on where the idea came from and focuses on a particularly important scene and the building blocks used in its creation. The performance was conducted in the visceral, physical theatre style which Frantic Assembly is so well accredited for.

The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. An example of this was when a low level, soft music played in the background and the young couple were lit in a soft spotlight that contrasted against the rest of the blacked-out stage (to represent the night time).A playful, heart-warmingly funny and tragic drama, LOVESONG speaks to all ages with its exploration of ageing, falling in love, and the fragility of life. Although subtle, this technique added depth to their characterisation, therefore making their characters even more believable for the audience. This subtle factor bared significance, as it showed Maggie’s hearing deteriorating as she became older.

There is something a trifle over-elegiac about the evening, and the script is frustratingly hazy on detail. A crescendo of classical music faded into the scene as she tried to walk in her old shoes with difficulty.

I think the reason it was so particularly hard-hitting was that even though physical theatre elements and explorative strategies created a non-naturalistic effect, the original plot beneath it is an entirely realistic depiction of a couple’s lives together and shows how being so in love and having each other as a constant shields them from recognising how quickly the things around them change until they’re near the end of their lives. However, the differentiating factor in their voices was that while the volume of Margaret’s voice fluctuated depending on the situation, Maggie’s voice was much louder the majority of the time. The magic realism of the story is also enhanced by occasional balletic movements well delivered by the older couple Phillips who was pushing 80 when the play was filmed is an astonishing dancer. Cox is equally pitch perfect as the old man grown irascible, haunted by a sense of loss except for one thing, the most important thing, his boundless love for Maggie. What we loved about those was the hero's grand romantic gesture that risked being missed or misunderstood by the object of his love.

Leanne Rowe and Edward Bennett too are perfectly cast as the young couple whose dreams did not stand that cruellest of tests, the test of time. Her The Night is Darkest Before the Dawn was written and performed as part of The Great Game: Afghanistan cycle of plays which recently toured to the Pentagon.

If this sounds tricksy (add in powerful video backdrops and an intensely moving underscore), it isn’t – all is perfectly pitched and done with beautifully judged finesse. Join Frantic Assembly Associate Simon Pittman as he leads you through a physical creative task inspired by the rehearsal process for our production of Lovesong.