Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Mike Bartlett’s LOVE, LOVE, LOVE is a brilliant love story for our times

• By drediman
• October 21, 2016
• No Comments

Richard Armitage and Amy Ryan in “Love, Love, Love” at the Laura Pels Theatre

Mike Bartlett’s surprising multi-generational love story Love, Love, Love opened last night at Off-Broadway’s Laura Pels Theatre, courtesy of Roundabout Theatre Company. With this latest play, Mr. Bartlett takes a step forward as a playwright from his previous striking yet somewhat one-dimensional major New York outings Cock and King Charles III. In Love, Love, Love, he proves himself a craftsman of compelling characters of great depth and irresistible unpredictability, in addition to being a master of structuring plays (which we already knew).

Like Georgie and Alex in the sensational Heisenberg by Simon Stephens (another superlative playwright from across the pond), the two lovers at Love, Love, Love’s core, Kenneth and Sandra realize early on – the play begins in the late 1960’s – that they have to take life by the horns in order to be truly alive. It’s a mantra they stick to through the course of the play’s three turbulent acts (in total, across four decades are covered, producing two troubled children along the way), and although the results are messy, the two are almost always the most compelling characters on the stage. The play comes together in the final act in a fascinating manner, ending on a tone both triumphant and unsettling.

Roundabout’s handsome production (always the case for their productions), directed with great intelligence by Michael Mayer, is excellent. As Kenneth and Sandra, Richard Armitage and Amy Ryan, respectively, are smashing. Their chemistry is immediately palpable, and both give performances of great charisma and skill – they age ever so convincingly in each of the three acts. Indeed, their portrayals give Heisenberg’s Georgie and Alex a run for their money as the most magnetic romantic couple currently in New York theater. Rounding out the cast are Zoe Kazan, Ben Rosenfield, and Alex Hurt. All are excellent.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE
Off-Broadway, Play
Roundabout Theatre Company at the Laura Pels Theatre
2 hours, 5 minutes (with two intermissions)
Through December 18