Not quite the romantic whodunnit we were promised.
Bubba and Luvvie, currently playing at King's Head Theatre, is an unsettling, poetic play based around two fascinating characters. I would gladly read this as a piece of text over and over again. I'd dip in and out of it savouring the confusion, the lyrical gems, the maddening characters and their mesmerising stories. But as a production, it fails.
Though the audience are welcomed to the play with highly effective, scene-setting sound, once the play begins, it struggles to hold our attention. After such a promising start, the sound is not put to much further use. The script feels chunky and atmosphere is forced upon it with poor use of projection to highlight the text, a responsibility that should fall on the actors, who are both highly talented.
The play takes a long hard look at Bubba, a cop on trial for murder and his ex-lover Luvvie, a retired brothel owner whose testimony has the power to send him to jail. Though it's billed as a romantic whodunnit, it's not long before we realise we're never going to be given all the keys to unlock the mystery since neither character is entirely sure about the sequence of events. So we don't really care whodunnit. But this is the point. We'll never really know the truth (despite the word glowing in giant letters on a cyclorama). Bubba and Luvvie are unlikely to reconcile their differing memories and the question asked is: do they really need to?
The characters are well sculpted and their individual stories are utterly compelling, as is the acting by Gerard McDermott and Mia Soteriou. At times they seem schizophrenic as they shuttle through their many lives, but this only amplifies the fraught, messy thoughts that have propelled Bubba and Luvvie to their precarious cliff-top meeting. As the snippets of childhood horrors unfold in a dreamlike sequence, the audience can never tell what's real and what's not – it makes the action seem like an absurd onslaught of emotions and stories.
It's not always the best idea for a writer to direct their own script, and Bubba and Luvvie is an example of this. Having said that, Strachan leaves me doubtless that he's a stellar writer and I look forward to seeing more of his work. His is a striking ability to create human, flawed characters and reveal them to his audience with clever skill and pace. Despite this, and his hit and miss use of symbolism, the play lacks a fluidity which makes this tough viewing.
Bubba and Luvvie runs at Kings Head Theatre until August 8th.
Click here for more Fringe Theatre in London
Click here for London Theatre
Click here for Things to do in London
Add an event
Frieze Art Fair to launch new section for young galleries in 2012
Frieze have today announced details for the 2012 edition, their tenth art fair in London. Taking place...