Paul English and Jillian Murray in Lovesong. Photo by Teresa Noble.
The transcendence of a perfect and romanticised love above all material obstacles is a trope that ironically transcends genre and medium. From being capable of interdimensional connection and communication in Interstellar to being able to defeat death itself in Romeo and Juliet, Love has become a kind of deus ex machina for modern audiences who are increasingly light on the deus. While this may pull effectively at the heart strings it’s inherently dishonest. Love may be thought of as divine but as long as it occurs through human relationships it will remain far from transcendent perfection. Lovesong does the slow and steady work of exploring the love of two people at its beginning and end without trying to cover up rough edges or blemishes.
Lovesong is a slow burner. Abi Morgan’s patient and carefully paced script has echoes of the common relationship arc. It starts with a feint spark in a sea of normality. No love-at-first-sight fireworks here, no promise of anything more; you have to get to know these characters and let the connection grow as you would when getting to know another person. As it does, the image of who Maggie and Billy are, both individually and together, takes shape. We see young Billy’s impulsiveness, his aspiration to a dated masculine ideal of breadwinner, family man, authority and the perverse utilitarianism that it involved. We see young Maggie straining against the constraints of the female role that accompanies this and the temptation to take relationship liberties in exchange.
Paul English, Jillian Murray, Maddy Jevic and Dylan Watson in Lovesong. Photo by Teresa Noble.
There is often an uncertainty that these two people should even be together and yet underpinning their petty and selfish moments is a connection that is at least resilient if not certain. It teases out the element of choice, a choice that must continually be renewed until it taken away by age.
The older Maggie and Bill are done trying to pull apart but now struggle to hold on to one another. They share a need for each other that seems to have moved beyond romanticism. It’s a desperation to maintain wholeness when a part of yourself is irrevocably bound up in someone else. Jillian Murray is outstanding as the older Maggie. She evokes this sense of loss and disorientation in the context of a love made up of a life’s worth of shared experience. Feelings and memories are prone to inaccuracy and bias but experiences are real and it’s this brutish sense of the real that makes the end of their story so devastating.
Lovesong is a different kind of love story; honest, beautiful and deeply affecting.
4 ½ stars ★★★★☆
Lovesong by Abi Morgan
Featuring Paul English, Jillian Murray, Maddy Jevic, Dylan Watson, and Campbell Banks.
Director Denny Lawrence
Composition Gemma Turvey
Set & Costume Designer Adrienne Chisholm
Lighting Designer Clare Springett
Dialect Coach Jean Goodwin
Production Manager Greg Clarke
Stage Manager Jackie Mates
Assistant Stage Manager Rachel Patterson
21 August – 23 September 2018
Red Stitch, Melbourne
