One couple 50 years apart at the Arundel Festival

SussexWorld

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.

Transcript

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.

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