by Barbara Waldinger
Picture a time and space where memories are not just emotional but are also physical embodiments of the past. And then add the possibility of interactions between the people doing the remembering and their living memories. That is the unusual concept of the play Lovesong by Welsh playwright and screenwriter Abi Morgan–the love story of an older couple towards the end of their relationship and their younger selves, who are beginning life together in a new country (having emigrated to the U.S. from the U.K), currently showing in a poignant production at Berkshire Theatre Group’s Unicorn Theatre.
Another unique element of this play is that it was not yet written when actors, directors and playwright joined together in a collaborative process run by Frantic Assembly, a touring physical theatre company in the U.K., combining movement, design, music and text. When Morgan met earlier with Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett, directors of the company, to discuss this project (their second together), they chose T.S. Eliot’s poem: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, written in 1910 and published five years later, as their inspiration. The constant presence of the starlings in Lovesong, birds that often flock together to keep predators away, came from Graham and Hoggett’s favorite British alt-rock band, Elbow, whose lead singer, Guy Garvey, wrote and sang Starlings, about a man speaking to a woman he loves. Morgan wrote her play in 2011 after this developmental period.
Because one of the goals of Frantic Assembly is to involve choreographers in dramatic works, much of the 2011 production in the UK involved choreographed movement and dance. The great British actress Sian Phillips, 78 years old when she played the older woman in Lovesong, was concerned because she was not a dancer, but her work, available online, says otherwise.
David Auburn, Associate Artistic Director at BTG and Pulitzer-prize winning playwright (Proof), with the help of Movement Director Isadora Wolfe (who recently directed Metamorphoses at BTG and is a frequent collaborator with Auburn), have created a delicate, graceful, plaintive, emotionally affecting memory piece. Rather than focusing purely on dance, though that is part of the performance, they concentrated on movement and staging, greatly aided by Alexander Woodward’s spectacular double decker set– with its upstairs bedroom and bathroom, and downstairs hallway with steps, kitchen and front garden, not to mention a peach tree with some real, edible peaches (mentioned in Prufrock). Because the four actors inhabit all of the acting spaces, in pairs or singly, often at the same time, there have to be many exits and entrances, costume changes, props appearing and cleared by the actors, dimming of lights but no blackouts to cover any of this—all forming one, smooth, intermissionless whole. What a feat!
Music, used during transitions and often underscoring the action, is essential to the mood of this play and Composer/Sound Designer Scott Killian rises to the occasion. During their rehearsal period, the Frantic Assembly directors emphasized the need for an “atmospheric, evocative soundscape” that would mirror the “shifting memories of the characters past and present.” What Killian has achieved both musically and through sound effects (the lamentations of the starlings) add immensely to the bittersweet quality of the work.
The contributions of Costume Designer Amanda Roberge and Lighting Designer Daniel J. Kotlowitz help to create those shifting memories—compare the gorgeous caftans worn by Karen Allen vs the youthful dresses/suits worn by her younger self, Rebecca Brooksher. We admire the nighttime lighting of the trees to the right and left of the house, and the way the brightening or dimming of the lights calls our attention to what we need to see.
It is a pleasure to watch this ensemble cast interconnect. Actress and director in both film and theatre, Karen Allen, recently honored by the Berkshire International Film Festival, plays Maggie, married for 40 years and suffering from a painful illness. David Garrison plays her husband Billy, a retired dentist who disliked his profession, preferring to leave work and read instead, even when his waiting room was full. Maggie’s goal is to tie up loose ends—to declutter, to arrange things so that Billy will go on living a good life after she’s gone. She even finds a friend who will take their cat when the time comes. Garrison rebels in a powerful, heartbreaking speech, threatening not to take care of himself or do anything she would want him to do. After listening to the whole diatribe, Maggie replies by asking him if he’ll brush his teeth. . . and he answers: “always.” (He was a dentist, after all.) Their marriage seems to be loving and tender, though having had no children, a devasting loss for Maggie, there is often silence between them and in their home.
We watch Allen as she observes her alter ego, Margaret, played by Rebecca Brooksher (who worked with David Auburn eight times previously at BTG). What is Allen thinking as she remembers her life as a young, married woman? We are caught up in the intensity of her concentration, even when she is silent. Billy’s alter ego is William, played by Shawn Fagan, as a hard drinking, jealous, controlling young husband, confident in his own ability to take risks and make decisions without consulting his wife. As we see the compromises that Margaret had to make in the marriage, including whether to stay with her husband or leave him, we are pleased to watch her develop her own voice. In her lovely, conflicted characterization, it is possible to understand how Brooksher’s Margaret became Allen’s Maggie, weathering the storms of their marriage and choosing to remain for love. But it is more difficult to imagine Fagan’s William becoming Garrison’s compassionate Billy.
From the playwright to the director and movement director, to the designers and the performers, this production succeeds in presenting its own concept of a universal theme: shining a light on loving relationships as the partners age but reliving and physicalizing their memories by merging space and time.
LOVESONG runs from July 22—August 29 at Berkshire Theatre Group’s Unicorn Theatre, 6 East St., Stockbridge. For tickets call 413-997-4444.
Berkshire Theatre Group presents LOVESONG by Abi Morgan. Director: David Auburn. CAST: Karen Allen as Maggie, Rebecca Brooksher as Margaret, Shawn Fagan as William, David Garrison as Bill. CREATIVE TEAM: Movement Director: Isadora Wolfe; Scenic Designer: Alexander Woodward; Costume Designer: Amanda Roberge; Lighting Designer: Daniel J. Kotlowitz; Composer/Sound Designer: Scott Killian; Dialect Coach: Jennifer Scapetis. Production Stage Manager: Sarah Garrett.
The performance runs one hour 20 minutes with no intermission. https://www.berkshiretheatregroup.org/