They try for children, but none come. In the 1960s, a British couple meet, fall in love and marry. As in Richard Bean's Honeymoon Suite, not only are scenes alternated but bleed into each other so that the older pairing view their younger selves and vice versa. Lovesong is a really beautiful, tender work that exemplifies the art of combining a good piece of writing by Abi Morgan with impeccable direction and choreography from Steven Hoggett and Scott James of Frantic Assembly. While Morgan’s work for film and television - The Iron Lady, Shame and The Hour – usually feels as if it is constrained by the commercial form of the product, here her voice is very much her own, uncensored, unashamed and unleashed. The sadness of mortality, the sense of loss, is balanced by the delightful quirkiness of Morgan’s text, which is by turns playful and illuminating, and by the plangent music and recurring video images of Frantic Assembly’s rapt production. During this time, Bill buys a dental practice that they cannot afford and somewhere along the line, they relocate to "The Land of the Free", where they remain for a lifetime. The evening is then pepped up by amusing tag-team appearances across a generation that are effected inter alia through a wardrobe, fridge and marital bed. But it’s the moments when the two generations interact that are the most poignant of all. Simply enter your email address in the box below, Autumnal love: Sam Cox and Siân Phillips in 'Lovesong', The sadness of mortality is balanced by the delightful quirkiness of Morgan’s text, which is playful and illuminating. Click here to book tickets or call 0871 221 1729. One of them is terminally ill, and decides to end it. Get a weekly digest of our critical highlights in your inbox each Thursday! Maggie and Billy are left gazing in wonderment as the younger versions of their spouses dance nimbly around them, cavorting lithely across the stage. Through watching these leaps into the dark, we learn about their lives. All in all, this might be seen as a typically ordinary existence but is well drawn. Plan your day ahead or read the day's London headlines with our daily emails. For about 90 minutes, we watch the ups and downs of the marriage of Maggie and Billy across four decades and through several leaps into the unknown. We follow their marriage through a period of transition and consolidation that lasts perhaps half a decade. The must-read London articles. Abi Morgan Production shot by … Production shot by Johan Persson, with Sam Cox as Billy and Siân Phillips as Maggie. Today the Lyric Hammersmith announces its Spring 2019 season, the final productions programmed by outgoing Artistic Director Sean Holmes. The season celebrates Holmes’ tenure – bringing back one of his most successful shows, reflecting the Lyric’s partnerships with the UK’s leading theatre companies, and embodying a reputation for daring new work alongside a commitment to … Maggie and Billy are shown as both their present-day elderly selves - Siân Phillips and Sam Cox - and as memories of their youthful selves, the more formally named William and Margaret - Leanne Rowe and Edward Bennett (all pictured above right). Something wrong with this article? The Lyric Hammersmith is one of the UK's leading producing theatres. The interaction between the actors creates a meditation about time, and references to skulls, teeth and prehistoric cave drawings give a long view of history, and of our place in it. Lovingly directed by Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett, Lovesong is particularly effective in showing the interaction between the older and younger couples, so that we see an old man dancing with a memory of his younger wife (pictured above), or a young man making love to the older woman his wife will become (look, it’s much less clumsy when you see it on stage). Now, Sam Cox and Siân Phillips take on the roles in a series of desperately poignant and immaculately acted scenes as the pair make their farewells and prepare for an end and a future - but only for him. As elderly couple Billy (Sam Cox) and Maggie (Siân Phillips) near the end of their 40-odd year marriage and face up to Maggie’s imminent death, memories of their younger selves (Edward Bennett as William, Leanne Rowe as Margaret) invade their home and paint a picture of the start of their married life together, with all its accompanying trials; jealous rows, disagreements over money, fertility problems and addiction, to name but a few. Abi Morgan Lyric Hammersmith 11 January to 4 February 2012. While they are very much in love, Bill's drinking and their inability to bear children begin to take their toll so that each seeks escape, though always rather ineffectually. The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly. The pace is measured, the action simple, the performances subtle, but if it doesn’t catch at your heartstrings, there’s surely no hope for you, you callous beast. Against his wishes, she decides to get a job in a local library. Marriage isn’t easy, they say, but if this play tells us anything, it’s that it’s damn well worth the effort. The past and the present are neatly interwoven, cleverly overlapping and intertwining: Maggie reaches into her wardrobe and, as she disappears inside, out spring William and Margaret to pick up where their elders left off; or Billy opens the fridge door and there stands Margaret, angelic against the refrigerator’s glow. The coolest London events from our partners. But it is also the story of the beginning. Both partners are tempted by the prospect of having an affair. Lovesong is on until 4 February at the Lyric Hammersmith, Lyric Square, King Street, London W6 0QL. In its ambition, beauty and delicacy, this is a ravishing piece of work. Lovesong is on until 4 February at the Lyric Hammersmith, Lyric Square, King Street, London W6 0QL. Till death do us part: love and death are, like the fingers of a couple holding hands, perfectly intertwined in this play by Abi Morgan, which has been touring the country since autumn and opened in London last night. Frantic Assembly will present Lovesong, a brand new play by writer Abi Morgan (The Hour, BBC; Shame, Film4), in a newly extended run at the Lyric Hammersmith following its recent national tour. All material on this site is the property of Londonist Ltd. Theatre Review: Lovesong @ Lyric Hammersmith. © 2020 Londonist, All rights reserved. Though the choreography comes over a teensy bit ‘drama school’ at first – lots of frantic writhing and basic contact work – it is deftly executed by the four actors and soon melts easily into the action, complementing the emotional nature of the story as it meanders towards its gently tragic finale. Love Song at the Lyric Hammersmith from 11 January to 4 February, the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow from 7 to 11 February and the Sherman Theatre in Cardiff from 15 to 18 February; The sadness of mortality is balanced by the delightful quirkiness of Morgan’s text, which is … Over and above their straight actor work, which cannot be faulted, the directors inject action, characteristic dance moves and often sensual movement. Click here to book tickets or call 0871 221 1729. So although Frantic Assembly’s signature dance moves are all too familiar, and there is a bit too much awkwardness in some of the staging, the general effect is one of wonder. Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically. Today, the pair have reached their seventies and Maggie is suffering from a terminal illness.
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