Factory Theatre’s True Love Lies, written and directed by Brad Fraser is a play about the deconstruction of a seemingly perfect nuclear family. The fall-out, however, of father Kane (Ashley Wright), mother Carolyn (Julie Stewart), daughter Madison (Susanna Fournier) and son Royce (Andrew Craig) is far from interesting. The complications that ensue when David (David W. Keeley), a past lover of Kane, moves back into town and decides to open up a new restaurant, feels contrived and cliché, especially considering when I come to see theatre, I want to see something that I can’t see on television, in the movies, or on the internet.
In short: Madison discovers David during a job hunt and is refused hire because she is Kane’s daughter. Carolyn becomes jealous of David because it brings out her own dormant insecurities about Kane’s “gay” past, Royce has a mental breakdown and embarks on a horribly unrealistic murder-suicide attempt involving David and potentially his entire student body and Madison is very aware of her sexual promiscuity.
True Love Lies is Fraser’s attempt to be edgy and exciting, but he tries so hard that the entire production falls flat and is only held up, slightly, by the quick-paced dialogue, which makes everything seem funny, even during the moments that really shouldn’t be.
As for the actors, Stewart and Wright as parents Carolyn and Kane have no chemistry. The scripts attempt to create a fresh and bouncy sort of harmony that only comes with years and years of love and marriage and results in the two finishing one another’s sentences and thoughts is stifled by the forced and unnatural delivery of their lines. It doesn’t feel fun and exciting, it feels rehearsed and cheesey. Fraser’s construction of “togetherness” is tiring, because lets face it, there is nothing more annoying than two people trying to be something their not, and this goes for both the actors and the characters.
Fournier as Madison is even worse. The actor’s attempt to project her voice sounds like a mid-level yell, and what is worse is that the characterization of Madison is as bland as the set design—pasty and transparent. I would rather watch the lighting changes in this show (which, may be one of the only good things about this production) than watch Madison prance around in her black heels telling everyone what they think. Another part of the problem is Fournier’s youth: she looks far too young and fails to grasp at the sensuousness and confidence that Madison should exude, something that might make her more interesting. The character may be twenty-one and a tad bit immature, but Fournier turns her into a fourteen-year old teenage-mess taken straight from the set of “Gossip Girl”.
The only saving grace of this show is Keeley and Craig as David and Royce. Though they don’t have much to do together, when they do interact it’s both interesting and funny: until Royce decides to point a rifle at David. What unfolds is one of the most horribly written and directed angry-teen-rampage-with-a-gun scene ever—and I’ve seen “Boston Public.” True, my television references may not have a place next to theatre, but this is the point: True Love Lies is a badly written two-hour made for TV film thrown onto a stage.
Now, I did mention something good earlier and that was the lighting and sound design. Bretta Gerecke fails with the set but soars with the creative lighting, with the exception of the barely-though out red and blue washes that are used far too often to show “night time” and “sex time.” Gerecke’s depictions of location, from the wide beams of light that shine through into the restaurant during the day to the appearance of a cityscape in the backyard of the house at night are accompanied by Christopher Stanton’s extraordinary sound design. He creates a living environment through tiny details like the faint bark of a dog in the backyard at night and the chatter of customers mixed in with sounds of cutlery being cleared in the restaurant.
However, Fraser’s one-liner wit and simple plot will no doubt give True Love Lies the lift it does not deserve. As theatre for the masses, this show does not deserve your time or money; especially when you can catch better stories on FOX.
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