Love is a Noun

It’s a rare privilege to be able to publicly watch an artistic work in progress. In general, creatives hold their cards close to their chest while they create, and it’s usually a looming deadline that determines when a piece is ready for public consumption, rather than the artist saying, “it’s finished.” The essence of creativity is to bring forth new life, and therefore to say that a piece is “finished” is to bring about its untimely death. Consequently, an outstanding work in any genre does two things: 1) make its progenitor want to do more and 2) make its audience want to see more. Daniel Jon Kershaw’s latest play, Love Is a Noun, should be considered such a work.

Kershaw does not shy away from letting us in on his arsenal of talents. He has a strong voice and wants to use it. As a writer, he may just be getting his feet wet in the grand scheme of things, but he already has enough experience and sensibility to present a script that is brimming with ideas and stories that want to be told, and that people want to hear. This is no easy feat, and Kershaw has bravely given in to both his own urgings and his peers’ urgings to expand the ideas and stories contained in his original one act.

Blak Yak Theatre has commissioned Kershaw to rewrite his original one act into a full-length play, and presents it in conjunction with Garrick Theatre in Guildford, directed by Lorna Mackie. For those who are unfamiliar with the first inception of this piece, it tells the story of a young couple’s breakdown, told simultaneously with a grandmother’s reminiscence. The three characters offer different perspectives on love, relationships and intimacy as their stories intertwine.

In its current, full-length incarnation, the young couple, Alyce (Leoni Leaver) and Lauchlan (originated by Brian Dennison, here played by Bradley Keith Towton), have a slightly expanded story, but whose core remains largely intact. They go through what so many couples go through in this day and age: they struggle to define themselves and each other within the confines of a modern relationship. They struggle to define what that relationship is, and what it should be.

Their modern struggles are then compared to those of Alyce’s grandmother, Mauve (Lis Hoffmann). In this version, Mauve has been given license to tell us more about her past, and what defined her relationships, two generations back. Two new characters are brought in, Young Mauve (Zoe Hollyoak) and Ralph (Tim Wingfield). Their story is told against the backdrop of World War II.

Lis Hoffmann continues to mesmerise in the role of Mauve; she is a fully-fleshed-out, living and breathing force of nature. Hoffmann handles the total emotional range that Kershaw throws at her in Mauve, and she does it without self-consciousness. Leoni Leaver again gives a committed, strong performance in this version. Towton, Hollyoak and Wingfield are slightly more green up against the two powerhouses Hoffmann and Leaver, but for the most part they do the script justice.

Kershaw shows us his range and sensitivity with Love is a Noun. There is offbeat humour, there is tenderness. He explores rejection, loss, heartbreak and loneliness; he writes both lyrically and with a punchy rhythm. He is nostalgic, cynical and sincere. This sounds like a lot to try to do in one show, but he does it with economy and good dexterity, so it all harmonizes. Also, I don’t think he can help it. He has a lot to say. 

This is a show that almost everyone will find something to connect to, whether they be young or old, bitter or romantic, single or coupled, or somewhere indefinably in between.

-Cicely Binford,

reviewed 20 April 2013