Writer Ela Moss and director Harper K. Hefferon bring the family mess to Islington’s Old Red Lion Theatre with Love Conditions, a deeply gripping, emotional rollercoaster of a production. The show peeks into the lives of Beth and Zac, a couple in their own forms of inertia, who must survive an explosive visit from the former’s older sister and all that she brings with her.
A family drama in which a chaotic sibling or parent blows into town is a well-worn subject matter largely because it’s a goldmine for dramatic reveals, big emotional moments and intense character exploration. You can find all of these things in Moss’ script, but thankfully, there’s a plethora of features that keep the play mostly engaging.
At the very forefront of what makes Love Conditions work is the performances of the three leads, each playing a different yet vital role to achieve dramatic harmony. Sarah Andre White delivers a whirlwind performance as Kelly, a character of many faces, each one more convincing than the last. White plays different sides to the character, embodying chaos, vulnerability, Machiavellian manipulation, love, desperation, jealousy and wit, with an unpredictability that cleverly ups the emotional stakes.
Alec Boaden as Zac threads a difficult needle both in the performance and the way the character is written, serving as the closest thing the play has to the everyman. It would have been easy to pigeonhole him as solely the “voice of reason”, yet the role is executed with a level of nuance and subtle complexity that allows him to hold his own amongst much more outwardly dynamic characters.
Last but certainly not least, we have Sophia Decaro as Beth, a character as endearingly earnest as she is frustrating. Decaro has one of the toughest jobs of the cast, playing a role that is at an emotional and interpersonal tipping point, constantly in danger of being pulled under by her past and desperately fighting for the right to own her future. It’s a performance that proves key to how well the production works, and Decaro pulls it off brilliantly, playing up the character’s imperfections but never losing her intense – at times tragically toxic – devotion to the people she cares about.
Moss’s script is full of wit, charm, moments of heart-rending humanity and thunderous emotional conflict, although – much like the characters – it’s not without its flaws. The play has a few instances of ill-timed humour that undercut the naturalistic feel of the dialogue, while some intentionally winding character monologues veer a tad too far into melodrama, feeling ham-fisted in the process and going on for a few seconds too long to the detriment of the pacing.
Despite some flaws, Love Conditions takes a classic premise to its messiest, most raw emotional depths, dragging you on a fantastically infuriating and heartfelt dramatic journey. The electric chemistry between the leads meshes with complex writing and a sharp, creative vision to deliver a brilliant family drama.
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