A raw love story that shows obstacles are part of being in love- whether you say the big “I Love You” or not.
I absolutely loved this play from start to finish- from the abrupt beginning and simple set to its unique soundtrack and interpretive dance sex scene. This play supported by Homotopia, a Liverpool based LGBQIA arts festival tells a raw queer love story. A Billion Times I Love You is a beautiful depiction of a realistic relationship that takes into account an individual’s struggles and how they can strain a relationship. Ultimately these obstacles are part of being in love – whether you say the big “I Love You” or not.
The play started unceremoniously with no announcement, there wasn’t the usual dimming of chatter and music cut off before the actresses came on stage, they appeared suddenly and took us into their world. We start at what seems to be domestic bliss, two young women in love enjoying a bottle of wine and dancing – you guessed it, this doesn’t last long. Their troubles start with what seems to be a mundane disagreement between a long time couple – one wants to stay up and have one last dance and the other prioritises work and wants to sleep. This is just the beginning of this couple’s strife, as we go on a rollercoaster ride of relationship ups, downs, sideways and coverups.
Both actresses do an amazing job of portraying convoluted and complex emotions to the audience. That was my favourite thing about this play – the rawness of real emotions that go along with relationship dynamics and the portrayal of sometimes ugly emotions. These characters were relatable and I found myself siding with one and then the other throughout the play and sometimes both. Melissa Low’s performance of Taylor embodied a passionate damaged person who was trying to be their best for their partner, she was fiery and hot headed and angry but only because of her love for Jesse and her fear of being alone. She also brought comedic relief to this piece with her false bravado and quick come backs. Mary Higgins did a stellar performance of portraying a complicated character, Jesse was the cool to Taylor’s hot – she preached openness, progression and communication and this actually actively discouraged communication. We saw both change throughout the play to accommodate the other and love ultimately prevailed.
The use of the simplistic set was a great choice to better focus on the emotional issues at hand and not distract from the open dialog written by Patric Maguire. The set also blended nicely with the use of The Crawlers soundtrack used throughout the paly and the lighting changes. Changes in scenery and movement was all captured in this one tiny square using these mediums. One scene were all this came together nicely was the sex scene between the two leads, as it portrayed the emotion behind the scene of covering up issues with physical intimacy and how that works for a bit but will eventually wear off.
I would recommend that everybody goes to see this play, as it will give anyone food for thought and bonus you get to support Homotopia and Everyman who give plays like this a stage. It also is a bargain as along with the just under an hour long play – you get a half an hour set of The Crawlers afterward. The Crawlers are a Liverpool based band who did all the music for this production – who are extremely good. I am now looking at buying tickets for their Liverpool gig.
*A Billion Times I Love You is playing at Everyman Theatre, Liverpool until the 8th October*