Park Theatre
Playing until 24th August 2024
Photo credit: Lidia Crisafulli
Review (AD-PR Gifted}
“I love you” is a common phrase people use to show their affection, but the meaning and weight of this are not often fully conveyed or appreciated. I love you, now what? Tells the story of Ava (Sophie Craig), her interactions with and her boyfriend Theo (Andy Umerah) and her father (Ian Puleston-Davies), in the days before and during her father’s illness and her time of grief following his passing.
The play doesn’t mask the fact that this is a story of loss, beginning with Ava retelling the audience about her father’s surgery and how he was robbed of any quality of life prior to his death. The lit sparkler in Ava’s hand gradually reaches its end as she begins her tale, signifying the end of her father’s life. The tone of the overall production is set immediately and primes the audience on what is to come. However, before we get there, we see how Ava met her boyfriend, Theo. Their awkward chanced encounter in a club, subsequent night of sex and passion and how they come to love and treasure each other. While brief, this offered a respite for the audience before we are introduced to the heavier plot points.
Through a series of interactions and monologues, the audience is immersed into the friction introduced into Ava and Theo’s relationship and how Ava had started to grief the loss of her father as the surgery fails and he no longer resembles the man he once was. There aren’t many things more devasting than to have to helplessly watch a loved one’s deterioration. Before Ava’s father lost all her verbal abilities, he asked Theo to look after Ava, a touching and heart wrenching moment of the play. In the absence of Ava, we witness the two men she had said “I love you” to, who in turn, show their love for her in their own ways. Despite the emotional response this evokes, the depth of Ava and her father’s relationship could be further developed. While the two seem close and they are somehow connected through their shared love for music, much more could have been explored to make the subsequent events even more impactful.
The set designed by Bethan Wall complements the mood of the story. At the start of the story, when Ava and Theo were in their honeymoon period and Ava's father was well, the piano in the centre (made of an upright piano and a case to make it look like a grand piano) is whole, even serving as a temporary bed in which the couple had sex on. As the story progresses and takes a darker turn, the piano gradually splits apart, until the piano and case become completely detached, signifying the gradual breakdown of Ava’s relationships and psyche.
Craig displays incredible range of emotions in this short play, covering passion and elation, grief and acceptance. In the second half, she buries all of her emotions following her father’s death despite encouragements from Theo and her therapist to properly grief. Having witnessed what Ava was like at the start and then becoming a husk of her former self, Craig convincingly persuades the audience that part of Ava died with her father.
Theo is a very human and grounded character, one that Umerah is able to personify. He is supportive when he needs to, helping Ava to care for her father and giving the dying man reassurances that his daughter would be cared for even after his death. However, as Ava had lost her father, Theo also lost the girl he loved and for a time, he hung on to the hope that she would one day go back to the way she was. However, this play clearly conveys that the process is just as hard for the person supporting as it is for the person who is grieving.
This is a meticulously written story, offering moments of respite in an overall story centred around grief and eventual acceptance. It offers impactful emotional punches, beautifully grounded characters and captures how grief and acceptance can manifest differently for everyone.
Creatives
Writer: Sophie Craig
Dramaturg and Director: Toby Clarke
Producer: Courtenay Johnson
Lighting Designer: Pablo Fernandez Baz
Set and Costume Consultant Designer: Bethan Wall
Movement Director: Sean Hollands
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