Writers: Laura Lindow, Naomi Obeng, Vici Wreford-Sinnott
Music: Me Lost Me
Co-Directors: Jack McNamara, Bex Bowsher
What a coup to have film, television and RSC alumnus Imogen Stubbs in the cast of these three very different short plays marking 50 years of Newcastle’s Live Theatre.
Northumberland-born Stubbs performs with talented young Newcastle actors Rebecca Glendinning-Laycock and Laila Zaidi in each work.
Three Acts of Love, linked by a haunting original score, celebrate and explore love in its various forms but it is Laura Lindow’s The Start of Space which will stay with you. It opens the evening.
Stubbs’ heart surgeon appears on stage to give a lecture on her work to students and begins by explaining the medical wonders of this vital organ. But the heart is so much more and as Dr McGill abandons her notes and tells her own story this becomes clear.
The intimate setting of the Live Theatre means every tiny expression and movement is seen close-up as she works with unwavering commitment, falls in love, and is devastated, drawing tears from the audience.
Lindow’s script delivers a nuanced and poetic account, adding to her already impressive portfolio of North East-based/performed dramas and drawing on her longstanding role as a clown doctor in Newcastle hospitals, where she has also been writer in residence. This also tells in McGill’s artful interactions with a young patient, played by Zaidi.
Zaidi takes centre stage in the next work, Naomi Obeng’s Fangirl, or the justification of limerence. It bears explaining that limerence means an infatuation with someone, sparked by low self-esteem.
The play opens with three devoted fans chanting while shrouded in large scarves, invoking a religious cult. This impression is not lessened when we learn that the singer they worship is called God – but only “for legal reasons”. The seam of humour is constant in this script and makes a great counterpoint to its predecessor.
Fangirl is an interesting dive into the pain and rewards of superfandom perfectly suited to its short format.
The music of Me Lost Me, aka Jayne Dent, is integral to the trio of plays. She is on stage for most of the night, providing filmic musical accompaniment, incorporating original songs into the works and linking them too with her folky electronica, pulsing like the heart itself. She even takes on the role of slide projector at one point.
The plays are co-directed by Live’s artistic director Jack McNamara and Bex Bowsher and set on a bare stage built from carefully positioned blocks which are lit beneath.
After the interval we have Vici Wreford-Sinnott’s With the love of neither god nor state. Here Stubbs is a salt-of-the-earth social club stalwart and it is Glendinning-Laycock’s time to shine as an autistic young woman searching for love and acceptance. Bit of a tub thumper this one – and very dismissive of social work – but it has an appropriately good heart and a happy ending for the night.
There should definitely be a collection for food banks at the end of the future performances – only someone with a heart of stone could refuse.
Runs until 16th December 2023
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