Love Letters to the Revolution | The Blue Room | Until 23 Oct | ★ ★ ★ ★ ½
Signed, sealed, and delivered. Love Letters to the Revolution is another engaging piece by WA Emerging Artist Award recipient, Sian Murphy.
Accompanied by a powerhouse production team, Murphy sets the stage on fire with technicolour imagery, electric music, and a script that reads out of your very own mental diary.
“I grasped for tangibility, and I found the beauty in tiny revolutions against a backdrop of massive social change. Love Letters to the Revolution is just that, a love letter to ourselves, the world around us, and the change that is coming.” Sian Murphy.
The production is in a similar vein to Promising Young Woman and V for Vendetta, playing to a social and cultural commentary at its core, not only within the Australian landscape, but globally.
Love Letters operates as a physical epistolary, a collection of situations and stories that play out across 70 minutes. Peppered with humour, and shockingly real, the cast deliver a strength of character that is engaging from start to finish.
Featuring the robust performances of Marlanie Haerewa, Elisa Williams, Jono Battista, Stephanie Somerville, and alluring omen of James McMillan; the team explode on stage with heart and timely dialogue.
The premise of the story effectively generates empathy that the audience can connect with. Change is hard, and conversations around change is even harder. Love Letters positions the conversation in bite-sized chunks that deal with sexual assault, climate change, mental illness, disability, and Indigenous reclamation.
Murphy’s devising and training comes through with effective blocking techniques and storytelling. Intertwined with metaphor, allegory, and true anecdotes; Love Letters is a cultural reset and a soft introduction for our community to experience life behind the veil, through the lens of the female gaze.
Love Letters to the Revolution is a steppingstone, with room to grow. At times the push for revolutionary themes is at war with written dialogue, and when in context limits the effective energy of inspiring and inciting a revolutionary act.
The parallel to this, however, is the conversations had after leaving the theatre. Though there is no gunpowder in the air, the battle cry rings out in the hearts of audiences.
Love Letters to the Revolution is a brave undertaking, full of humour, herstory, and humanity.
Tickets to the remaining performances are on sale now.
Joshua Haines
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