A love song by any other genre is still a love song, be it a fast-paced club jam or a slowed down ballad.
Dundee Rep’s latest production of John Kolvenbach’s play Love Song is just the same – strip back its highbrow lyrical prose and neurotic New Yorkers and it’s a ditty you’ve already heard before.
Yet like a good pop song, it’s familiar but enjoyable. The play centres on Beane, played by Ewan Donald, a lonely young man who only socialises with his sister and her husband until he falls in love.
The first half is pleasant enough, with smart dialogue and endearing performances. Sarah Swire as Molly stomps onto the stage with an obvious it-factor that singles her out as a young actress to watch.
Emily Winter also brings warmth and humour to Beane’s sister, Joan, who could have been a two-dimensional shrew in lesser hands. Yet this section fails to make the heart beat faster, and meanders along nicely but with little passion.
Towards the end of the second half however the play moves away from its clever but bloodless rat-a-tat-tat dialogue and commits fully to Kolvenbach’s dark and romantic prose.
In a wonderful sequence between Swire and Donald, the revolving stage – a cool but seemingly unnecessary feature – is used beautifully in conjunction with fabulous performances.
Later, a stripped back two hander between siblings Beane and Joan shines a light on unsung love stories of family and friends with its quietness and restraint.
Deeply moving, Love Song is a banger of a play once it hits its high note.
Love Song runs at Dundee Rep until April 23.
