Lovesong (Oberon Modern Plays)

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Lovesong intertwines a couple in their 20s with the same man and woman a lifetime later. Their past and present selves collide in this haunting and beautiful tale of togetherness. LOVESONG sees acclaimed theatre company Frantic Assembly join forces with celebrated writer Abi Morgan for a new play about lifelong love. 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. In May 2022, Morgan released a memoir entitled This Is Not a Pity Memoir, in which she discusses her husband's battle with encephalitis and Capgras delusion. [12] Personal life [ edit ] Lovesong by Abi Morgan is a textbook weepie which beats with such profound truth that you’re held rapt.

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. This contemporary piece interweaves the older and younger characters, exploring and replaying memories together – almost like a dance. Lovesong Programme Follow Link to Photos by Mike Watling Press Releases 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. 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. Directed by Frantic Assembly’s artistic directors Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett, the production will tour the UK, beginning on 30 September 2011 at the Drum Theatre, Plymouth, with a three week London run at the Lyric Hammersmith from 11 January 2012 (Plymouth press night 3 October; London press night 12 January). In addition to previously announced tour dates, new dates have been added at the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow in February 2012.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.

In January 2020, Morgan said that she was recovering from breast cancer. [15] She had chemotherapy and a mastectomy. [16] The title of this piece is interesting. Love songs so often focus on one element – passion, euphoria, loss – but Abi Morgan’s play, developed together with choreography from Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett of Frantic Assembly, considers love over the long haul … I would have welcomed more astringency and less tugging at the heartstrings. But the sympathy of the piece and the candour of the four performances gradually lift it into a tender meditation on time and our place in it … The drama is at its best when at its most wry, specific or frank: when the older Billy expresses his terror and grief at his wife’s impending death by launching into a tirade, for example. And the physical detail can be very touching: as when Bennett lifts Phillips in a loving duet. It is a gentle, compassionate piece, but would be more moving still if it strove less hard to be so.” That is the story of our beginning. And this is the story of…the end. Lovesong intertwines a couple in their 20s with the same man and woman a lifetime later. Their past and present selves collide in this haunting and beautiful tale of togetherness. All relationships have their ups and downs; the optimism of youth becomes the wisdom of experience. Love is a leap of faith.Lovesongby Abi Morgan was presented by Banbury Cross Players at The Mill Theatre from 5th to 8th July 2017. Telling the story of a couple, Love Song is split between a young William/Margaret and the older Billy/Maggie, depicting the highs and lows of a relationship. Morgan’s text weaves between the honeymoon period of early relationship bliss to the older, refined relationship of a couple who have been together some forty years. The stories twist between each other so at times an older Billy directs dialogue at a younger Margaret, and vice versa. Coupled with Graham and Hoggett’s signature physical movement, the relationship between the couple is physically played with, moving between straight dialogue and movement showing the topography of this couple’s relationship beautifully.

Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Archived from the original on 14 July 2022 . Retrieved 25 February 2020.Morgan was appointed OBE in the 2018 Birthday Honours, "For services to Theatre and Screenwriting". [17] Selected works [ edit ] Plays [ edit ]

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).LOVESONG sees acclaimed theatre company Frantic Assembly join forces with celebrated writer Abi Morgan for a new play about lifelong love. Lovesong intertwines a couple in their 20s with the same man and woman a lifetime later. Their past and present selves collide in this haunting and beautiful tale of togetherness. A staunch opponent of Brexit, Morgan was one of nine leading playwrights to contribute to a series of online dramas in 2017 responding to the causes and consequences of the EU referendum result. Entitled Brexit Shorts, Morgan's monologue, The End, starred Penelope Wilton as a woman on the brink as she faces the consequences of the end of her 43-year-old marriage. [11] Non Fiction [ edit ] 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.