Writer: Abi Morgan

Director and Choreographer: Scott Graham & Steven Hoggett

Reviewer: Amy Taylor

The Public Reviews Rating:

A relationship, its beginning and its end form the basis of Frantic Assembly’s Lovesong, a co-production with Drum Theatre Plymouth and Chichester Festival Theatre, that challenges universal notions of love, marriage, loss and death – with honesty, integrity and thankfully, no trace of cliché.

Beginning with the young ex pat couple Billy (Edward Bennett) and Maggie (Leanne Rowe) moving into their new home in the US, the play moves between the ages as the excitement and exuberance of their young love is contrasted with their quiet care and grief of William (Sam Cox) and Margaret (Sian Phillips), when they are faced with a fatal illness and must come to the end of their time together.

Morgan’s exploration of a love story between two characters in two different decades is a thoughtful, yet brutally honest exploration of love, companionship and loss told through memory and dance. This juxtaposition between recollection and physical movement, combined with the juxtaposition of the couple at two very different stages of their lives, is what makes Lovesong so moving, so intimate, and so unashamedly human. Recreating Billy and Maggie’s relationship, from newly wed bliss, to allusions to infertility, to allegations of infidelity and finally, to forgiveness and acceptance in the face of death, this play refuses to shy away from some of the less-discussed, but highly relevant and completely relatable parts of every relationship. However, Morgan’s refusal to sensationalise the topics of adultery, marriage and death – topics which have fallen prey to cliché under other writers and public scrutiny is a wise one, and give Lovesong time to recreate the emotion and the raw power that make it so moving. Change too, is also a very important part of the play, as the characters move from the UK to America, and the passing of the years is quietly compared to the natural migration of swallows, and the changes within both Maggie and Billy as they become Margaret and William make for some of the play’s most poignant moments.

Under Graham and Hoggett’s direction this simple tale of enduring love through the decades is given new life and new understanding, and their finely-choreographed dance and movement sections have the power to create and sustain feeling and power were sometimes mere words cannot. Quietly powerful, with an exquisite cast and exceptional sound and video, Lovesong is a hopeful and unforgettable play that pays tribute to human progression, and resonates, like the chords of a forgotten song, echoing in a silent world.

Runs until Sat 11 February