Lovesong (Oberon Modern Plays)

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Frantic Assembly is celebrated at home and abroad for creating thrilling, energetic and unforgettable theatre. The company attracts new and young audiences with work that reflects contemporary culture. Vivid and dynamic, Frantic Assembly’s unique physical style combines movement, design, music and text. Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett formed Frantic Assembly in 1994. Scott and Steven have since performed in or directed all of the company’s work. They seek to collaborate on original ideas with today’s most exciting artists. Ravindran, Manori (27 January 2020). "Writer Abi Morgan Reveals Breast Cancer Diagnosis". Variety. Archived from the original on 28 January 2020 . Retrieved 13 March 2020.

Siân Phillips is one of Britain's most respected actors. Her recent stage work includes the role of Juliet in Juliet and her Romeo (Bristol Old Vic), Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Broadway) and Calendar Girls (West End/tour). Her screen work includes her BAFTA-winning role in I, Claudius (BBC TV), as well as such seminal works as Goodbye Mr Chips, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Dune. She has also performed live with musician Rufus Wainwright at the Old Vic. a b c "Writer Abi Morgan has last laugh at the Emmys". Wales Online. 23 September 2013. Archived from the original on 25 September 2013 . Retrieved 23 September 2013. The high-concept premise is that the same couple is portrayed by Sam Cox and Sian Phillips over a few days late in life, and in their 20s and 30s by the younger actors. Each pair of actors almost always interacts only with each other, but all four are frequently on stage at the same time: the end of one scene overlaps with the next, and Morgan skillfully sets up plot points and themes in one frame that are supplemented or advanced by information provided in the other. Older Billy opens the fridge in his spacious middle-American kitchen, and out pops Margaret in a ’60s outfit, gleefully exploring the home they’re just moving into. Going through boxes of stuff from the attic, Maggie wonders why they ever needed those silly Chinese lanterns — and the lanterns then appear in a climactic scene in the earlier plot. Leanne Rowe's theatre credits include Dirty Dancing (West End), Talent ( Menier Chocolate Factory) and Mysterious Skin (Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh). Her film credits include Jane Eyre (dir. Franco Zeffirelli) and Oliver Twist (dir. Roman Polanski.Though widely performed in the south of England over the last decade, we’re delighted to bring this beautiful and haunting drama to the North East.

Abi Morgan is an award-winning writer whose plays have been widely performed across the country. Her hit drama The Split recently aired its final series on the BBC. Morgan is stingy with her facts. At the beginning of their marriage, Maggie and Billy emigrate to an unnamed part of America, as if the playwright wants to separate them from family and friends. The times are only lightly suggested when, in what must be the ’70s, Billy objects to Maggie taking a job in the local library … While Morgan struggles to avoid sentimentality, the production, with its musical underscoring and evocative images, is less restrained … Apart from the occasional clumsy piece of choreography, Frantic Assembly and Morgan have created a highly emotional, tender piece, in which the intensity is remarkably sustained over 90 minutes. It feels as if one is holding one’s breath from the first line to the last. Ageing, memory and the passage of time are powerful themes that affect us all. No wonder it’s a case of tissues at the ready.” Bloomfield, Ruth (13 May 2015). "A Victorian Home in London's Stroud Green Gets a Modern Basement". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Archived from the original on 17 April 2021 . Retrieved 17 April 2021.

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A playful, heart-warmingly funny and tragic drama, LOVESONG speaks to all ages with its exploration of ageing, falling in love, and the fragility of life. Billed as “a new play about lifelong love”, Lovesong intertwines a couple in their 20s with the same man and woman a lifetime later. In 2009 the Drum Theatre had major success with a new ‘horror’ comedy, Grand Guignol by Carl Grose as well as producing a new experimental work, Under the Influence, with Ontroerend Goed for production in Plymouth and Ghent, before touring internationally. The Drum again collaborated with Ontroerend Goed in 2010 on Teenage Riot as well as co-producing Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice with ATC and DC Moore’s The Empire with the Royal Court. The Drum has recently collaborated with Told by an Idiot on And The Horse You Rode In On; with Paines Plough on Love, Love, Love by Mike Bartlett and with ATC on The Golden Dragon. Most recently it produced Chekhov in Hell by Dan Rebellato with runs in Plymouth and at the Soho Theatre, London. Lovesong from acclaimed playwright Abi Morgan played at the Drum Theatre Plymouth 30th September to 15 October 2011, then opened in Washington DC in Autumn 2011 followed by a run at Sheffield Crucible from 19th October, before transferring to the Lyric Hammersmith, London where it was captured by Digital Theatre.

Love is a leap of faith. Abi Morgan’s new play Lovesong takes the audience with a couple, Margaret and William, as they take that leap into married life in a foreign country. He is a dentist she a homemaker; together they make the move to the US. Their journey through life is told by the couple in old age, as played by Sam Cox and Sian Phillips, as they interact on stage with their younger selves, played by Leanne Rowe and Edward Bennett. The result is a slow-burning meditation on time and transience. We switch repeatedly between past and present, as when William twirls the mature Maggie around the living room and the elderly Billy embraces youthful Margaret. This interplay is lovingly handled. SIÂN PHILLIPS is one of Britain’s most respected actors. Her recent stage work includes the role of Juliet in Juliet and her Romeo (Bristol Old Vic), Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Broadway) and Calendar Girls (West End/tour). Her screen work includes her BAFTA-winning role in I, Claudius (BBC TV), as well as such seminal works as Goodbye Mr Chips, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Dune. She has also performed live with musician Rufus Wainwright at the Old Vic. Abi Morgan’s writing for the screen includes The Invisible Woman, the Margaret Thatcher film Iron Lady, starring Meryl Streep, the flagship BBC TV drama The Hour and the BAFTA award-winning drama Sex Traffic (Channel 4). She has recently collaborated with Steve McQueen and Michael Fassbender on the upcoming feature film Shame. She previously worked with Frantic Assembly on the much praised Tiny Dynamite, and her other previous writing for the stage includes The Night Is Darkest Before The Dawn (part of the Tricycle Theatre’s Great Game season), Fugee (NT New Connections), Tender (Hampstead) and Splendour (Paines Plough). a b Lewis, Helen (15 October 2015). "Abi Morgan on Suffragette: "These were voiceless women. We gave them a voice" ". New Statesman. Archived from the original on 17 February 2017 . Retrieved 16 February 2017.

Abi Morgan's writing for the screen includes The Invisible Woman, the Margaret Thatcher film Iron Lady, starring Meryl Streep, the flagship BBC TV drama The Hour and the BAFTA award-winning drama Sex Traffic (Channel 4). She has recently collaborated with Steve McQueen and Michael Fassbender on the upcoming feature film Shame. She previously worked with Frantic Assembly on the much praised Tiny Dynamite, and her other previous writing for the stage includes The Night Is Darkest Before The Dawn (part of the Tricycle Theatre's Great Game season), Fugee (NT New Connections), Tender (Hampstead) and Splendour (Paines Plough). After initial ambitions to become an actress herself, she decided to become a writer while reading drama and literature at Exeter University. [5] She then took a postgraduate writing course at the Central School of Speech and Drama. [4] Writing career [ edit ] Theatre [ edit ] Sam Cox's recent stage work includes Anne Boleyn, All's Well That Ends Well (both Shakespeare's Globe), Inherit the Wind (Old Vic), Arcadia (West End), God in Ruins (RSC/Soho), Macbeth and King John (both RSC). His film and TV work includes Doctor Who (BBC TV), Prime Suspect (Granada) and Hippy Hippy Shake. Having not dared to show any of her writing "to anyone for five years", her first professional stage credit was in 1998 with Skinned at the Nuffield Theatre, Southampton. She has written plays for the Royal Exchange Studio Theatre Manchester, the Royal Lyceum Theatre, the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, the National Theatre of Scotland and the Royal Court, London. [6] Her 2001 play Tender commissioned by Birmingham Rep Theatre and co-produced with the Hampstead Theatre gained her a nomination as "most promising playwright" at the 2002 Laurence Olivier Theatre Awards.