Thursday night’s audience was stripping off layers before the show had started. Maybe it was the smooth R&B pre-show soundtrack. Maybe it was an effect of the deep hot glow of the red footlights. Seems more likely it was the venue’s A/C unit, which gave us time to warm up while it warmed up, but no matter. Love was in the air… if love is an angry, dingy thing you make together on a cot upstairs.
For a show that’s determined to plumb the depths of our hearts and suss out what love really is, Love Game is a surprisingly desperate soap opera lacking in passion, curiosity, creativity, and kindness. It’s not so much a deep show about the brokenhearted as it is a deeply broken show about the totally heartless.
Even the director’s note sets off warning bells. “I’ve gotten so tired of hearing so many people talk about what they think they know about love and decided to take a chance in creating a revolution that can inspire people,” James Turner writes (he’s also the playwright). Guess irony’s lost on this Cupid. And it’s only the first hypocritical moment in a long show about five bitter couples living, for some reason, under the same roof, all trying to understand love.
It could have taken a number of promising paths — a large-scale farce, perhaps, or even some sort of choral poem — but Turner takes every path of least invention, and the show winds up a hugely overstuffed and mean-spirited rehash of every argument any hetero-normative couple’s ever had on basic cable. On the surface it promises to be a work of therapeutic art, but it quickly turns into a trashy verbal slugfest among one-dimensional characters.
Rarely has so much vitriol been less substantive. Darius (Turner) and Lisa (Allison Hayden) are the most promising pair, since their initial bickering has a Beatrice/Benedick repartee to it. We can only imagine they’ll get over themselves and get together in the end (spoiler: neither of them are smart enough to make it happen).
By the end, we’ve given up expecting it. Love Game is an anti-romance, driven purely by sex, ego, and social anxiety. At their nicest, characters may exchange a generic compliment or two. More often, though, they’re cutting each other down, frustrated with each other’s generalizations and gender prejudices but unwilling to loose their own death grip on the same dubious presumptions. What’s missing is any interest in the individual — anecdotes, memories, nicknames, quirks, or even just a spare adjective or two. It’s the details of a lover that make them unique. Without them, love is just a status show, trafficking in labels.
And the traffic is congested. Love Game is strangely preoccupied with chairs, and the small stage features ten of them — just enough to ensure that no one can walk anywhere in a straight line (and no, that’s not thematically interesting). Consequently, everyone who’s standing looks like they’re waiting to sit, and everyone sitting is in the way of blocking. No one ever seems to have an occasion for coming onstage other than some habit of chiming in on arguments they’ve been listening to in the next room. And no scene is any more than just that: an argument, begun because characters are feeling bored and concluded, apparently, when they grow tired of each other. As a result it’s rarely clear where we are in time and space. One scene, amusingly, ends out of nowhere with the line “Check, please!”
In the end, nothing’s happened. The worst people end up hooking up, and the ones with a hint of a deeper inner life are shamed and victimized. Along the way we’re treated to such piercing insights as “We all make mistakes, that’s a part of life” or, my favorite: “Every time a woman says that nothing is wrong, that means that something is wrong.” Say what? A better show might have conjured catharsis out of such collective wailing and hair-pulling. As it stands, Love Game is just feverishly stirred into a whole lot of mess. I don’t know about love, but I do know something about real estate this crowded– keep your clothes on, and relocate ASAP!
Love Game
Written and directed by James Turner
Produced by Jt Angel Productions
Reviewed by Hunter Styles
Running time: 95 minutes
Read all the reviews and check out the full Capital Fringe schedule here.
Did you see the show? What did you think?
I admit the show could use some improvement. What I got out the show was that love exists and that it is up to the person receiving it how they want to respond to their partner. I am not really a fan of relationship love, but if I was I would like to end like the interacial couple. Love and relationships is not all about smelling the roses and everything going smooth…it has thorns and it hurts at time. Overall the play touched on a lot of subjects.
I think it is hilarious that the writer has decided to respond to his review. Ummm dude if the show sucks it just does. Ever heard of workshopping. I actually saw the show also, because one of my good friends is in it. I was a little sad that she wasted her talent here. I also was sad that once you enter you cant exit without walking across the stage. I would have left for sure.
Having your friends post random 5 star reviews doesn’t count as ‘real’ good publicity. I heard Beyond Therapy was a great show and that Fring has had some cool concerts. I would check that stuff out.
I suggest starting over.
Peace,
LM
http://www.theatermania.com/washington-dc/shows/love-game_168925/
Two 5 star reviews on this show just in case people want to believe this article of constructive mess. One thing I will not do is let someone disrespect 13 months of hardwork. I know the difference between constructive criticism and just plain bashing. My cast worked as hard as any production in this whole festival. And the reviews on this link show for it. I do believe in Karma. So God has everything prepared. What you know about that Love Game?
Now I wasn’t at the show because I was actually in the show. And there are some things you mentioned about this production you are correct on. But there are many other themes and moments where you totally taken out of context. Don’t get me wrong, the late night show did lack some intensity, energy and passion. I’ll give you that. But not by any means is this play all trash talking and arguing. Of course there are people talking down on people in this show. That’s how anyone would be if they agree to live in a house together for an entire year…even if it was six months.
And there are moments where the show mentions why everyone in the house *hence the lady goddess with the wings* She’s the one that brought everyone to the house. They all agreed to come here searching for love. If you were listening to the show and enjoying it instead of finding all the faults, then you would have recognized some of the many good qualities to the show and the message. This show is not just no conversation between couples you see on tv.
This play talks about the good, bad and ugly in modern day love. And I’m sure you had relationships that were good, bad and ugly. Most relationships are bad and ugly but you have to get through that bad & ugly because there is good at the end of the tunnel. If you don’t see the good, then something is telling you to move on. If you listen to the text of the lines, they have meaning. “Everytime a woman says nothing is wrong, that usually means something is wrong.” Is that not true? You wouldn’t know because you’re not a woman. This play tacks into the minds of ten very complex characters who all are different in MANY ways.
I do respect the criticism though because it helps me learn where my mistakes are and what I have to do to make changes. Oh yeah, our Saturday showed last night rocked and we got good reviews on it. http://www2.theatermania.com/washington-dc/shows/love-game_168925/ That’s just one comment. So when you want to make another critique, understand the whole story first which clearly many others did once they talk to me and members of my cast. But the one who doesn’t see it is the one who gets the public say. Thank you for your constructive criticism…if that’s what you want to call it.