My overall impression
It must not be easy to work under such a grand title as “Love Is.” You feel like someone’s about to sit you down and tell you once-and-for-all the answer to humankind’s greatest mystery. But Lee Turnbull’s earnest portrayal of a modern relationship quickly dismisses any ostentation and asserts that none of us know exactly what love is.
Turnbull engages the audience by complimenting scenes of banality with scenes of explosive emotion. We watch as married couple Lee and Emily start off by laughing and chatting over drinks with their inner-circle of 20-something friends. They appear so happy and complacent with their lives it almost makes you sick. But the cast’s performances are consistently natural and extremely relatable, even when the actors effortlessly shift to crying and screaming at each other. A break-up conversation in particular had such chillingly familiar dialogue that it induced personal flashbacks. From there, “Love Is” descends into emotional chaos and climaxes with a devastating twist ending which taught me that, if anything, love is just fucked up.
Great play, great cast, go see it.
