One couple is seen 50 years apart in an intriguing piece from Drip Action Theatre Company for this year’s Arundel Festival.
Directed by Dawn Smithers, Lovesong by Abi Morgan
(www.ticketsource.co.uk/drip-action-theatre-company) runs from Monday, August 19-Saturday, August 24 at 8pm at The Victoria Institute, 10 Tarrant Street, Arundel. Tickets £14, students £10.
Directed by Dawn Smithers, Lovesong by Abi Morgan
(www.ticketsource.co.uk/drip-action-theatre-company) runs from Monday, August 19-Saturday, August 24 at 8pm at The Victoria Institute, 10 Tarrant Street, Arundel. Tickets £14, students £10.
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00Good morning, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Always lovely
00:07to speak to Dawn Smithers. Now Dawn, you are directing for Drip Action Theatre Company
00:11this August at the Arundel Festival, and you're directing Love Song by Abbey Morgan at the
00:19Victoria Institute from August the 19th to the 24th. Now it's a piece with a really intriguing
00:26premise, isn't it?
00:27It is, yes.
00:28Two couples, but four actors. How does that work?
00:32One couple.
00:33One couple, yes. One couple played by two actors of young age and two actors of an older
00:40age. So they're both playing the same couple. So you see this couple in their 20s, newly
00:46married, with all their sort of little niggles and arguments that most people have when they're
00:51first married, you know, getting to know each other. And then you see them 50 years later,
00:56and then their 70s, settled into a really lovely relationship. And it's a love story,
01:02really. And what's brilliant about the play is that you see the young couple, and then
01:07you see the older couple, maybe watching them, sort of reminiscing how they were, and they
01:13intertwine with each other.
01:15And as you said just now, it's quite surreal, then, the fact that...
01:18Very surreal.
01:19How much interaction is there between the two couples?
01:22There's no dialogue between them, because obviously they're in different times.
01:27Quite a lot of interaction with movement and looking, yeah. And just being in the same
01:34space, but not communicating.
01:37And you're saying it's not necessarily a big, profound message here,
01:40it's just saying this is what happens in life.
01:42No, it's not a big, profound message. There's no underlying profound message.
01:45It's life, really. It's about a couple that start off very young,
01:50as I say, like we all do when we're married. You get to know each other, you get to learn
01:54people's ways. And then as you grow into a good relationship, it blossoms. It's a love
02:01story with a little bit of sadness in it.
02:04And as a director, what's the challenge for you in this piece? What do you think you've
02:08really got to nail to make this a success?
02:10I think I've got to nail the scene changes, where they sort of meld into one another,
02:16so that it flows completely. So you see one couple coming in and the other couple going
02:21out, but it's all done in a flowing way.
02:24Absolutely. And as we're saying, a perfect piece for drip action, who tends to be more
02:30on the edge, don't they?
02:31Yeah, very much more on the edge. We've got a lovely space, so you're very immediate.
02:35The audience is sort of a couple of feet away, so you have to really know your stuff.
02:40And it's shaping up nicely?
02:42Yes, it is. Yes, yes. We've had quite a few rehearsals. We've only got three weeks to
02:46go, haven't we? So yes, getting there. Still needs work.
02:52Fantastic. You'll have done it by the time you reach the stage. So it's at the Victoria
02:57Institute, August the 19th to the 24th. Hope it goes brilliantly.
03:01Eight o'clock every evening.
03:03Brilliant. Thank you.
03:04Thank you, Phil.