True Love Lies (Touchstone Theatre) at The Cultch (review)

We previewed True Love Lies earlier this week and last night I (Anabelle) had the chance to see the premiere of the play representing Hummingbird604.com.

The plot, which follows up on a play written 20 years earlier, follows the life of Kane’s (played by Greg Armstrong-Morris) family after his daughter Madison (Lara Gilchrist) meets with an old (male) lover of his: David (Andrew McIlroy). The play explores the effect of David’s return into Kane’s “perfect” nuclear family life.

The play explores themes of traditional family, love, women’s place in society, metal illness, queerness and sexuality. It is insistent in underlining the inadequacy of the traditional nuclear society in the contemporary world, where sex is omnipresent and love can move from one gender to another. It also explores the life of the ageing gay man as he sees himself replaced and discarded by younger, better looking guys.

The first half of the play is fast paced and moves a little like television; sometimes the scenes last only for a line or two. I was a little annoyed by this at first, as the text and the scene division was a little bit too close to a sitcom for my tastes (Brad Fraser, the playwright, worked for 3 years on Queer as Folk). But this pace slows down significantly in the second half, where the script takes time to explore the relationships between the characters a little more in depth.

Despite the hard truths exposed in the play, I was a bit disturbed by how lightly it took certain secondary topics like eating disorders, Alzheimers’ and sexual abuse. If there’s no space to develop a meaningful message around these subjects, maybe it’s better to leave them alone.

The actors were all excellent, with Anton Lipovetsky as Royce shining for me. He has the difficult job of bringing a deeply disturbed teenager to life and he was very convincing. The cast had a great chemistry that came in handy in the first half of the play, where characters often end each others’ sentences. This requires a lot of timing, and they pulled it off well.

The set was ingeniously used as both a family house, a restaurant and David’s apartment. The play provides both entertaining witty repartees and thoughtful development of more challenging topics. Catch it before it closes on October 1st!

What: True Love Lies
When: Until October 1st
Where: The Cultch, 1895 Venables Street
More info: The Cultch
For tickets: Click here to buy.

Disclosure: Anabelle attended the premiere of the play on media tickets for Hummingbird604.com graciously provided by Touchstone Theatre. We were not paid, required or expected to write a review. Raul maintains editorial control at all times.