A Fringe show that combines cheesy love songs, karaoke and “boring monologues” might not encourage theatre-goers to attend, but Love Love Love takes those elements and crafts a play that is satirical, funny and ultimately endearing. Harriet Plewis and Matthew Bellwood, a pair of single (in capital letters) friends, started the show by belting out Barbara Streisand’s ‘The Way We Were’. Plewis’ lovely singing voice was contrasted by a fumbling Bellwood’s unfortunate attempt at harmony, along with video screen images of the pair sitting forlornly in the subway and frolicking in a park.
The duo – Plewis, a hopeless romantic; Bellwood, a confirmed cynic – dissect some of the world’s most overused love songs in a way that is both illuminating – the vast majority of love songs apparently use the same chord progression – and humorous – “Phil (Collins) makes the kind of music you forget while you’re listening to it.” While Bellwood scoffs at the hackneyed lyrics of songs like ‘Everything I Do, I Do It For You’, Plewis shares unabashedly how the songs speak to her real-life heartbreak.
The hour-long play, while extremely entertaining, does lull a bit near the end due to rehashing of the cynical-versus-romantic theme, and Bellwood’s amusingly bad singing does get a bit tiresome. The show doesn’t unearth any momentous truths, either, but its characters are honest and likable and the script full of love, including some man-on-werewolf action.
Love Love Love is easy to, for lack of a better word, love.
Rating: 4 stars
Reviewed by: Stephanie Classen, The Star Phoenix
Coming all the way from London to travel the Canadian fringe circuit, Matthew Bellwood and Harriet Plewis play a pair of singletonlosers who sit at a karaoke bar and lament their failures at love. Bright-eyed Harriet still believes in love, and – more to the point – the
rejuvenatory powers of love songs by the likes of Bryan Adams, Celine Dion and Phil Collins. Ahem. Matthew is more of a moper, his cynicism a mask for shyness and insecurity, and the slings and arrows he directs at Harriet are often hilarious, cutting barbs. Home-made, karaoke-style singalong videos accompany much of the performance, with the best being an explication of the modern love song that should be required viewing for 13-year-olds everywhere. At the end of this exercise in deconstruction, the unanswered question concerns which is more pathetic – the delusions of the perpetually romantic (Harriet), or the bitter sadness of the perenniallydisappointed (Matthew).
Rating: 3.5 Planets
Reviewer: John Kendle, Planet S