Award-winning theatre company Inamoment is to stage three short plays written by Birmingham writer Frank Bramwell which ask questions about the mysteries surrounding love.
I Love You... Goodbye looks at two couples as they come to terms with each other—and love.
Bramwell says, “We wanted to understand something about what this thing we call love is really all about.
“We wanted to get away from the usual pap and clichés that seem to shroud the whole mysterious thing.
“Above all we wanted to get honest, with both ourselves and most importantly with our audience.
“As with all our productions, we also wanted to create an evening at the theatre that was different. So we thought we would present three short plays with each having its own different theatrical style but all are linked by a common questioning approach.”
The company started with Bramwell’s play Romeo and Juliet for all Time which won an award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and which was a sequel to Shakespeare’s original.
It was stripped down to its essentials and Underneath the Stars was born. The new play “retains the essence of a style of theatre that is recognised as being Shakespearian”.
Georgia Christodoulou plays Juliet while Mark Roberts is Romeo. Both will be making their professional debuts. Bramwell directs.
Using his earlier play as inspiration, Bramwell then wrote I’ll Follow you into the Dark as a counterpoint to the Shakespeare classic.
“The writing is very much a product of Stripped Back Theatre, a style of theatre that Inamoment productions has been creating and workshopping over the past three years, which puts all the focus on the energies of both actor and the spoken words.”
Linda Hargreaves plays Martha and Stuart Horobin, who worked with Bramwell on one of his earlier plays Tempest Fugit, is John. Lauren McCarron directs.
The characters and some of the words of the third play Undermath are drawn from the other two plays, with actors and directors re-examining some of the themes and issues raised in Underneath the Stars and I’ll Follow you into the Dark.
I Love You... Goodbye will be staged at the Old Joint Stock Theatre, Birmingham on Friday and Saturday.