Aged and Young Characters Explore Multiple Themes In Thinking Cap’s Lovesong

A time-bending moment in Thinking Cap Theatre’s Lovesong/ Phot9os by Tabatha Mudra

By Aaron Krause

“We have each other, isn’t that enough?” A character asks this in Lovesong, a tender, touching, time-bending play running through Nov. 3 in a moving Thinking Cap Theatre (TCT) professional production. The venue is TCT’s new performance space at the Hollywood Central Performing Arts Center.

The aforementioned question doesn’t receive a direct response. Rather, in the 90-minute, intermission-less Lovesong, possible answers hang in the air, as do other things worth pondering. Indeed, the play, by Abi Morgan, is a quiet, thoughtful, and thought-provoking meditation on different topics. They include life, illness, love, loss, memory, aging, change, death, relationships, and time.

Nicole Stodard, TCT’s founding artistic director, helms this production with sensitivity and nuance. Unquestionably, Stodard and her four-person cast bring out the piece’s pathos. In addition, they lend proper weight to the play’s lighthearted moments which truly relax, uplift, and rejuvenate us. Contrastingly, effective pauses convey tension and perhaps relay unspoken words and thoughts.

The production stars Abbie Fricke, Peter W. Galman, Nathaniel Heustis, and Deborah Kondelik as one couple at two distinct stages of their relationship. More specifically, Heustis and Kondelik play the couple in their 20s or 30s, while Fricke and Galman portray the same couple about 40 years later.

During their younger years, they are William and Margaret. Many years later, the playwright changes their names to Billy and Maggie. Perhaps this is symbolic; their names are shorter in their old age suggesting, perhaps, that less of them remain. For instance, they may have shrunk over the years and their energy level might be lower.

The entire play takes place outside the couple’s home, in their garden during the present and past. During some scenes, past and present coexist, blurring the lines between realism and a romantic, dream-like state. Certainly, the non-linear Lovesong experiments with form and makes us think. In fact, it’s the type of play that the experimental TCT likes to stage.

You could argue that “nothing really happens” in Lovesong. However, like Our Town, Thornton Wilder’s deceptively simple classic about life’s fleetingness and beauty in its routine and simplicity, Morgan’s piece is Wilderesque. In particular, it suggests that we should embrace life in its simple beauty. Why? Because it will be gone before you know it. Therefore, we need to really look at each other and exist in the moment.

Like it does for many people, time seems to fly for the couple at the center of Lovesong. Blink an eye, and decades have passed, people have grown old and moved away.

Doubtless, life is brief and fragile – as delicate as the bruised peaches dotting the landscape of the couple’s garden outside their home. We’re born, we live, we love, we grow old, we die, we decompose. Therefore, it makes sense that Billy, a dentist, carefully and repeatedly brushes his teeth – he wants to preserve them as best as he can so that after his body has decayed, folks such as archeologists can use them well. As Billy notes, a person’s teeth can tell scientists things about who they were, etc. The playwright even includes a skull in the piece, which is symbolically significant.

True, Morgan doesn’t shy away from tackling uncomfortable topics such as our mortality and what happens after we die. Actually, you might even call the playwright morbid after experiencing her play. “I want to be cremated,” a content-sounding Margaret tells William suddenly, out of the blue early in the play. A brief discussion between the couple about the benefits of cremation vs. in-ground burial follows. From this, you may deduce that the playwright, who writes poetically in Lovesong, isn’t bothered by death; it’s part of life, so why not openly, even contentedly talk about it?

In addition, Lovesong acknowledges that life can be upsetting and even overwhelming. But during these dark and perhaps depressing moments, we can embrace and celebrate life’s simpler yet satisfying moments. For example, cuddling with your soulmate, deciding what to eat for dinner, offering to help your loved one, and complimenting him or her are moments that call for rejoicing – or at least smiling.

“You look beautiful,” Billy tells Maggie after a stressful exchange.

What follows in TCT’s graceful production is a scene so romantic and blissful, you can’t help but at least smile. Circles of light slowly rotate around the stage as tender music plays. The lighting in general is dim in order to reinforce the romance in the air. Billy and Maggie, arm in arm, dance, serenely and happily. You want to savor this moment.

As a matter of fact, it features similar scenes during which the mood is peaceful and relaxing. Soothing music plays; the kind you might hear at a yoga studio as the instructor, in an effort to get participants to unwind after a hard workout, speaks soothingly.

But back to the question at the top of this review – “We have each other, isn’t that enough?”

The playwright implies that it isn’t. Tension has existed between this couple since they were young and when they learned that, even after several years of trying, they physically couldn’t have children. Some 40 years later, life is hardly all bliss for Billy and Maggie. For example, at least one of them is having an affair, and Maggie isn’t well – physically or mentally.

Curiously, the playwright includes the issue of assisted suicide in Lovesong. You have to pay close attention, or you might miss it; Morgan includes a couple of lines of dialogue, and perhaps some nonverbal moments in the play, that suggest Maggie wants to kill herself.

“When I jump, I have to know you’re with me,” she somberly tells her husband, who never responds to the comment.

But Morgan hardly explores the issue of assisted suicide; it feels as though the playwright has forced the topic into the play. Unfortunately, we never learn exactly what has driven Maggie to such a low point. Is her physical pain intolerable? We get a hint that she’s hurting physically, but not that her pain is unbearable. The playwright does, however, suggest that Billy will have to get along when Maggie is no longer with him. And during a tirade, Billy sarcastically lists the ways in which he will not care for himself when Maggie is gone. Still, the issue of assisted suicide feels forced in this play. It can be peaceful and romantic one moment and dark and stressful another.

To their credit, the actors deftly handle their characters’ varied feelings and emotions, seamlessly segueing from, for instance, anger to tenderness.

Galman, a veteran actor and hardly a stranger to the South Florida live theater scene, carries a pleasant and sometimes thoughtful air as Billy. With expressive eyes, a shining smile, and a pleasant voice, Galman instantly makes Billy likable; it’s obvious why somebody would want to spend her life with him. But when Billy gets frustrated, the smile disappears and a curt, harsh tone escapes his voice. Unlike Kondelik’s Maggie, Galman’s Billy seems more relaxed, in control and prepared to comfort his wife (the performers share a strong chemistry).

As Maggie, Kondelik, an actor and retired theater educator who is making her TCT debut with Lovesong, delivers a powerful performance. It sounds and Iooks natural as well as spontaneous. In particular, anguish and weariness appear etched into Kondelik’s expressive eyes and face, and we can also hear such pain in her voice. But, in a well-rounded performance, Kondelik’s Maggie also radiates believable joy and gratefulness for her husband’s support.

Heustis, who is making his professional acting debut with TCT’s Lovesong, lends William a youthful, carefree charm and enthusiasm that endear us to the character. Also, Heustis is just as effective at conveying stress and frustration as the young man.

Fricke, a recent Lynn University graduate, is also making her TCT debut. She lends Margaret credible youthful excitement and charm and, at times, a playful demeanor. While Fricke’s Margaret is obviously young and happy, she also grows convincingly irritable at her hubby. While she can become upset at William, you still sense that she loves him deeply.

Together, the two young actors are believable as young lovers.

The actors are onstage for most of the play. But they’re not just sitting or standing when the others are performing. For instance, during a scene between the younger couple, the actors playing the older couple might look like they are deep in thought. They are, in essence, remembering their younger years together as that time unfolds near them.

As the director, Stodard deftly paces and stages the production, often creating striking stage pictures. But the versatile theater artist handles multiple responsibilities for this production.

In addition to directing, Stodard designed the character-appropriate costumes. And she co-designed the vivid sound design with TCT Managing Director Bree-Anna Obst. The soundscape includes realistic nature sounds that, together with the musical selections, reinforce the production’s often serene and romantic aura.

Obst also designed the mood-enhancing lighting. It is appropriately dim during romantic scenes, and more intense during realistic moments.

In addition, Obst’s picturesque projection design includes images that further enliven the production, such as birds flying. Speaking of birds, they play a symbolic role in this play, especially starlings.

Before the reviewed performance, Stodard noted that TCT’s production of Lovesong marks the first time in a while for professional live theater in Hollywood. Therefore, there are multiple reasons to celebrate – live professional theater’s return to Hollywood and TCT’s triumphant production.

Lovesong, a play by Abi Morgan, plays through Nov. 3 at the Hollywood Central Performing Arts Center, 1770 Monroe St., by the Thinking Cap Theatre. For tickets and showtimes, go to www.thinkingcaptheatre.org, or call (954) 610-7263.