“The Thing About Love” is a new play written by Aldo Longobardi, who is a well-known and respected drama teacher around the state. Longobardi is the drama coordinator at Concordia College, and he directed this production as part of the college’s SACE Stage 2 drama program.
When staging a play as part of syllabus requirements, it’s critically important to choose a script that is well written, engaging, and robust enough to keep an audience interested and to allow all participating students to demonstrate their achievements over the course of their learning. Choosing a ‘home grown’ script might appear risky, but Longobardi’s script is a gem and ticks all the boxes.
Subtitled “Five Weddings and a Birthday Party”, the play follows eleven friends as they meet up at weddings and a party and invariably discuss their love lives. (They’re young – what’s more important?!) They seem to have no more than two degrees of separation between each of them, and so the conversations are authentic, meaningful, and range from being flirtatious to exposing deep vulnerabilities. At times the audience laughter is exuberant, and at other times you can hear a pin drop.
There are fourteen scenes in the play taking about 90 minutes without an interval, but the action moves quickly from one scene to another with mostly smooth transitions and sustained momentum. The play is episodic in nature, and on occasion it feels that we are skimming the play’s deeper themes and only glimpsing the inner psyches of the characters. The audience soon discovers they can’t relax too much and let the text simply wash over them: it demands to be listened to, carefully.
Having said that, some scenes are quite powerful and sharply observed. A key example is the scene between ‘Theo’, played so well by Tom Reuter, who is a standout in the production, and ‘Grace’, played simply but stylishly by Madeleine McNicol. These two young actors demonstrate excellent diction, and body language (especially Reuter) that speaks louder than words. There is a scene-within-the-scene that is comically melodramatic and superbly choregraphed as the two characters step outside of themselves and briefly become larger than life. It is a joy to watch.
Some of the characters are played by female actors, and although this is not necessarily demanded by the script, several of the characters are written in a way that allows them to be cast as either, or non-binary. This is deliberate by Longobardi, and it is clever, as it allows the focus to be placed deeper and metaphysical aspects of love than what might otherwise be expected from pure heteronormality. It’s not a ‘big deal’ in the play – there’s nothing radical or ‘preachy’ – and the most intriguing aspect of it is the way the actors shaped their characterisations. Lois Allan and Matilda Preston played ‘Charlie’ and ‘Finn’ respectively, and engaged the audience with humour, bluntness, and sincerity, and the ‘gender-bending’ was quickly forgotten as they allowed their characters to unfold. Preston relished her comedic moments and showed great timing.
Archer Broomhall as ‘Ollie’ was suitably brash and confident, but also exposed when needed. Sienna Glasson gave the demanding role of ‘Eva’ both vulnerability and a beguiling calmness. As ‘Clara’, Maddison Fox played with strength and authority and gave truth to the phrase ‘don’t mess with me’. A convincing performance, and a beautiful singing voice!
The cast is well rounded out with Anya Frey as the deep thinking ‘Rachel’, John Gallagher as the level-headed and gentle ‘Jordan’, Elysia Kenyon as the almost-annoying analytical ‘Holly’, and Elle Stevens as the caring and self-sacrificing ‘Maggie’.
The theatre was set up as a wedding reception, with a long official table on a raised platform, a dance floor in front, and then tables and chairs for the guests (aka the audience!). There is also an offstage area immediately behind the high table obscured by a festive strip curtain through which cast can quickly enter and leave. Longobardi has the cast moving freely and confidently between the acting spaces, and the simple lighting plot assists in establishing a sense of ‘place’. On entering the auditorium, one is greeted by a violin (Jude Owens-Fleetwood) and cello (Sherry Cheng) duo, who immediately create a ‘wedding’ feel as they beautifully play well known tunes from popular and classical repertoire.
Congratulations to all involved in bringing this delightfully engaging play to the stage. The audience loved it.
