Saturday nights are the reward for a busy week, it is a time to spend with friends and loved ones however for some the night is lonely and isolating. Marry Me Little peeks inside an apartment block where two singles are thinking about their love lives or lack thereof completely unaware that their potential soulmate is just a floor away. See the musical love story at ACT Hub from 14-24 June.
“They’re sharing their own secret fantasies and thoughts about who they are and whether they want to be in love, what they would like. It’s a gentle, short love story,” says Director Jarrad West.
From their own apartments, the characters tell their stories of passed and hopeful future love through song, almost to one another.
The impact that loneliness and isolation can have on us has been at the forefront of our minds since the beginning of the pandemic and lockdowns. West believes that the effects had been uncontemplated for many years before that, for the open rehearsals they invited a clinical psychologist to join.
“How did the pandemic in particular affect young people and young adult’s sense of self and sense of community and social isolation, what happened to them?” Explains West “Particularly in the fact whilst we are not a metropolitan capital, we are still a busy city, so what is it like feeling lonely and isolated in a bustling place versus a rural country town?”
The play complete with music and lyrics from the great Stephen Sondheim captures that longing in some of his lesser-known pieces. West says.
Marry Me a Little is an exploration of Stephen Sondheim songs that got away says West with the music and lyrics coming from some of lesser-known pieces.
“There’s a lot of stuff there that you’ll think ‘Oh, that’s slightly familiar’ because it might be a different version of a song that you actually do hear in a show. For example, Sondheim originally went through two ending for the musical Company before he settled on Being Alive, and the first two songs that they were using as the end of the show survived and are now in this one,” says West.
Known for writing dialogue not rhymes, West says Sondheim wrote for the actors with the numbers having wonderful arcs, which also make them more interesting for the listener.
“A lot of people describe Sondheim songs as three-act plays of itself in terms it will start one way and then pivot to another thing to reach a resolution… A song that may at first glance that may appear to be about love and all its delights, actually when you listen and drill down you realise it’s the complete opposite,”
The characters, a poet and someone in the corporate world are simple but relatable. West says anyone who’s ever been lonely, anyone who has ever questioned whether they deserved love and questioned when it will happen will be able to resonate with the pair on stage.
“I think we’ve all had those moments where we are laying in bed and night going ‘is this all there is, is that it?”
Complete with apps to capture the current dating scene and modes of communication. West says while technology and apps have made life easier in some ways, as it the preferred way of meeting someone, it has also made us lose something.
“I don’t know whether or not going to a bar and striking up at a bar happens anymore… That sort of starting a social interaction from scratch without liking their photo or their Instagram post or not knowing anyone and actually starting a conversation is a skill that none of us have any more,”
Thrilled that Canberra is getting big blockbusters on Canberra stages, the director wanted to also showcase the opposite end of the spectrum in this play with one set and two actors. He says the Hub is the perfect intimate space for a date night at the theatre.
“Let’s go and watch two lonely people figure out whether they like each other while we do the same,” smiles West.
See Marry Me a Little at ACT Hub, 14-24 June; acthub.com.au
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