A Play About Love

My final helping of the Wellington Fringe festival was charming, disarming and struck so close to home I could have sworn one or two conversations had been stolen from my own University romance. This show is touted as one "for all the cynical romantics out there." An ill fated romance between the girl who makes snow globes and the boy who writes notes unfolds on stage, played out by each actor in turn from the first person perspective of our unnamed host.

We explore the relationship and see the highs and lows, the little moments worth commemorating and the big fights you wish you could forget. We explore exactly what it means to love someone. Is it just a chemical signal in the brain telling you to fulfil that instinctive need to protect the species? Or is it something more?

I really enjoyed the dialogue because it was written in a simple way that enabled us to really look for those deeper meanings the cast were pointing us too but without the need for overly dramatic or emotive language. The tone flowed really well from humour to sadness and back again with the occasional side trip to awkward and angry. I really felt I could easily meet this person in real life and they would speak exactly the same way, this made it really easy to connect to and believe this character.

The set is a jumble of apparently home-made snow globes, with a variety of oddities inside, which are moved about on stage to separate the setting for each scene. It’s simple and clever and works brilliantly to connect the whole thing together. The lighting is simple and draws our focus from person to person as the story progresses. The whole show is really unassuming and brutally yet beautifully honest.

I advise you to keep an eye out for future work from “my accomplice” especially if this show is to make a reappearance.

A Play About Love was on at BATS from13-17th March.

Starring: Hannah Banks, Kate Clarkin, Uther Dean, William O'Neil and Paul Waggott.