As the audience enters The Annex at 5 Eliza, they find onstage three ladies in black with metallic pink masks and rose crowns. The music booms a heavy electro beat that loops over and over, and on reflection, the whole set-up seems to be a hyperbole for the ridiculous nature of love. Written by Kirsty Budding, the seven short plays and comedic monologues that make up Budding Theatres, I Heart Love, vary wildly in the scenarios they portray.
The music stops and the lights go out. The masked ladies chant excitedly about the wonder of the Greek language with its four different words for love. Suddenly, a man emerges, looking hip and cynical in a brown coat and chequered shirt. He says “Greek muses, how pretentious. I’ll tell you the truth about love. Love is fucked”. Everyone roars with laughter.
The offended muses, hurry off stage to reveal a desk and a distraught looking woman in a headscarf. What happens next is a twisted tale of love and hypocrisy. The first play, “Hassan is Dead”, which first featured as part of Short + Sweet in 2013, is a polished performance by its lead actor – a woman grieving the loss of her lover as she is interrogated by Pakistani Police as a suspect in his murder.
Love is manifested in many strange ways as the showcase twists, turns and triumphs through plays that surprise and delight: a narcissistic actor whose fake congratulation of a colleague is nowhere near as real as his love for his actor page on Facebook; a vindictive teacher whose only care is shown to be her unhealthy (bordering on creepy) home life as a cat lady. Many of the characters are entirely unlikeable but their compelling portrayals make them so intriguing to watch.
More loveable characters redeem the heart of the show. An older gentleman in a green bow tie enacts the fetishation and frustration of his three marriages. His convincing performance coupled with excellent costuming and accurate dialogue artfully colours and categorises the different types of marriages. Another highlight is the unexpected story of the bond between student and teacher. The set up is incredulity as to why an English teacher’s brightest but mot belligerent student always winds up in detention. The student divulges her respect for the teacher as a mentor, and in turn the student is shown to be the teacher’s muse. These relatable stories of loss and learning are reminiscent of the temporality of the human existence and the significance of relationships on identity.
The randomness of I Heart Love is cleverly woven together by two recurring characters: a peculiar boy who uses his binoculars to peer at people to find “truth”behind their lies, and the cynical man in the brown coat who dismisses romance as triviality. The impression this leaves is whimsical, suspicious and open to interpretation. Which may be the best way to summarise the show and love itself.
Reviewed by Eliza Berlage
