Love, Love, Love

Synopsis

1967. Kenneth and Sandra know the world is changing. And they want some of it. Love, Love, Love takes on the baby boomer generation as it retires, and finds it full of trouble. Smoking, drinking, affectionate and paranoid, Mike Bartlett’s play follows one couple’s forty-year journey from initial burst to full bloom.

Our Review:

Simon Tavener - 8 June 2011

I had high hopes for Love, Love, Love. Mike Bartlett has a growing reputation as an accomplished new theatre voice, Paines Plough are a great company whose dedication to new writing in unparallelled in the UK and the play has been surrounded by a lot of excited chatter since the tour began. Unfortunately my hopes were not well-founded: it is one of the more disappointing evenings in the theatre in recent months.

In many ways, this is quite an old-fashioned script. Playwrights have shied away from the three act structure in recent decades but Bartlett uses it well to allow for the significant passage of time that his narrative demands. Moving from 1967 through to 1990 and then ending in the present day, it is nothing if not ambitious. However the delivery of the different time periods does not quite match our expectations. The costumes feel right but there is a lack of real authenticity in the set and often the language jars slightly – not quite tuning into the necessary lin...

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Latest User Review

Gareth James - 27 May 2011:

Back in at the lovely Royal Theatre in Northampton for the second time in as many months to catch the Paines Plough tour of this Mike Bartlett three-act play. We start in 1967 on the night the world first watched TV together and The Beatles premiered All You Need is Love (from which the play takes its title). Oxford student Kenneth is staying with his older brother and proceeds to steal his girlfriend Sandra. Jump forward 23 years and Kenneth & Sandra are now married with careers, two teenagers and a house in Reading, but they’re about to split up. Jump forward another 21 years and we’re in retired Kenneth’s home with his son as the ex-wife and daughter / sister are about to visit. This is a slow burn because it’s not until the third act we understand what Bartlett is getting at – it’s all the baby boomers fault! Though I think this is a valid and much ignored premise, I don’t agree that the response of the baby boomers is to focus on spending their ‘wealth’ and ignoring the woes of their children in our new inaccessible property / low pay society. Though I don’t have children, most of my friends who do are making significant sacrifices (including re-mortgaging their homes) to help their children. However, it is right to hold them (US!) to account. It’s an original, captivating and well structured piece. The jumps forward between acts do mean long intervals (with, in our case, an over-run of 20 minutes) that slow down the dramatic flow. It also means actors have to age between 21 and 44 years – a bit of a tall order – and it’s to their credit that they just about pull it off. Ben Addis does particularly well moving from irresponsible student to responsible husband & father and on to irresponsible oldie. James Barrett (so good in the Bush’s 2nd May 1997) is outstanding as both a carefree 14-year old and a troubled 35-year old. Rosie Wyatt’s performed with great passion as an angry 16-year old and an even angrier 37 year-old. A fascinating and deeply satisfying play from a playwright who is leading the way in modern state-of-the-nation drama that is both entertaining and thought-provoking. Well worth the trip to Northampton. Only one more stop on the tour in Oxford – be there!...

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