Lovesong – Gate Theatre – Review
LOVESONG by Abi Morgan
Dates – 9th May to 15th June 2025

Photo: Patricio Cassinoni

We meet a couple, Maggie and Billy,  at two stages of their lives separated by 40 years. Nick Dunning and Ingrid Craigie play the older couple, with Naoise Dunbar and Zara Devlin playing the couple in their youth. We learn much about their lives together, their good times and their arguments. Some decisions forced their lives in one direction, and not another. We see their move to the United States and their struggles to have children. We witness what has held them together and what almost tore them apart.

The play jumps between the two couples and frequently intermingles them. An older Maggie enters a wardrobe and the younger emerges, like a visit to Narnia! There are several exits on stage, playfully hidden in household objects.

This play is written by Abi Morgan, the BAFTA and Emmy-award winning Welsh playwright and screenwriter. She’s known for works such as The Hour, The Iron Lady and more recently, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy. Lovesong dates from 2011, with the original production starring Siân Phillips.

The choice of director of this piece is slightly unusual, as David Bolger is known for his work with CoisCéim Dance Theatre. While his Dance productions often include text, to direct a traditional play is quite a leap! In this work, there are intervals which focus primarily on movement, which allow him to use his strengths.

The stage by Francis O’Connor gives us a kitchen table and chairs, along with a bed on a raised platform at the rear of the stage. Their garden has a peach tree, and to create this, many peaches hang from strings coming from the ceiling. These peaches extend out into the auditorium, over the heads of the audience.

The play tries to peel away the intervening years between the two couples. Can you see the younger faces in the older ones? What has changed during the intervening years to alter these people? It’s a subtle piece that focuses on the acting of the two couples. It creates a dream state, where the disparity in time is inconsequential, and we see the couple, warts and all, as the years tumble by. There are beautiful dream sequences where the younger Billy (Naoise Dunbar) rolls out of the fridge and into the arms of the older Maggie (Ingrid Craigie). The movement between the two couples is one of the highlights of the piece, with dreams of youth and beauty.

Cast
Maggie – Ingrid Craigie
Margaret – Zara Devlin
William – Naoise Dunbar
Billy – Nick Dunning

Creatives
Writer – Abi Morgan
Director – David Bolger
Set Designer – Francis O’Connor
Costume Designer – Joan O’Clery
Lighting Designer – Suzie Cummins
Sound Designer & Composer – Jack Foster
Voice Director – Cathal Quinn
Assistant Set Designer – LaurA Fajardo Castro
Assistant Director – Emma Finegan