This tale about late-blooming in love is relatable, aching and beautiful

Understanding love is always overwhelming, messy and difficult. There are a lot of crossroads each person needs to go through in order to fully fathom what connection, acceptance and bonding mean to each of them individually, especially in an era where we are competing with each other constantly, in every aspect of our lives. 

Those themes get properly explored in Love Steps, the wonderful, emotionally naked -of-age story at the Omnibus Theatre. 

We follow the journey of Anna, a 34-year-old woman who never had proper romantic experiences and who feels frustrated, anxious and insecure because of “falling behind” and the pressure she and society constantly put on her to find someone. The naturalistic dialogue, the sublime dance interludes and the multifaceted performances from Reece Richards—who plays multiple characters as diverse as Anna’s father, the plethora of romantic prospects for Anna and her friends, dabbling between all of them with grace, applying distinct mannerisms, expressions and accents to each one—and  Sharon Rose—who portrays the various facets our relatable, complex heroine goes through with her heart on her sleeve—make the 85-minute show compelling from the first moment to the last. 

However, nothing would work as well as it does if not for Anastasia Osei-Kuffour’s layered script and confident direction. The poetic segments in particular, reflecting on desire, self-image, idealisation, and insecurities about fate, race and love, are the highlights of the narrative: the words of the writer so perfectly composed that you can’t help but wish to memorise every syllable. To help the audience process the emotional voyage, the play is divided into multiple micro-segments, each perfectly justified and adding to the overall arc of what this story’s all about: what romantic love should really mean in this day and age. Among the topics explored are the horrors of online dating—in a hilarious sequence where Anna slowly loses hope about actually finding something meaningful in the excruciating world of Tinder, Hinge and the like—, the atrocious disappointment of falling for someone who doesn’t reciprocate or is taken and the fog of the honeymoon stage that can cloud our judgement and trap us in toxic relationships. In exploring these stages with emotional precision, Osei-Kuffour and Rose make a palpable synergy, which, combined with the sober, empty stage and the simplistic choices in light design and costume (both actors are dressed in black the whole way through), puts the focus where it needs to be: in the powerful reflections and in the engaging acting, making Love Steps a treasure you shouldn’t miss.