Lovesong in conversation: Director’s Q&A with Sophie Pierce
The first production of 2026 for Wokingham Theatre is Abi Morgan’s Lovesong, a beautiful, modern drama about one couple’s 40 year marriage, told by both their younger and older selves.
The play was originally staged by renowned UK physical theatre company, Frantic Assembly, and now is being brought to life on the WT stage by Director Sophie Pierce.
We sat down with her to hear what audiences can expect from the first play of the new year.
First of all, without giving too much away, what is the play about?
Well, put simply, the play is about life and love. It is about one couple’s marriage, in the early years of it, as well as in their twilight years, as they reflect on their 40 years spent together.
The story focuses on this older couple who are struggling to come to terms with an illness, and about one crucial week in their lives, where their house becomes filled with each others’ memories, as their younger selves come to life in front of us, at all different stages of their marriage.
What can audiences expect in terms of style?
We have four actors, but only two characters, so that tells you a lot about the style of the piece; this is not a straightforward play. That being said, in some places it’s incredibly naturalistic; the performances being given by our cast are beautifully nuanced and truthful within each moment.
But then we also have this overlap of ages, as memories overlap and the lines between realities are blurred, where old and young interact on stage. In these moments we become more stylised, more deliberate in our movement and technical aspects really ramp up, so it feels far less naturalistic.
We have projections, movement, huge soundscapes, and a lovely stylised dreamy set, all to blur the lines between reality and memory. It’s dreamy, it’s reflective, it’s just a joy to be a part of it.
Tell us more about the physical theatre aspects of the storytelling.
When you take on a play that was originally written in collaboration with Frantic Assembly, you have to assume that physical theatre is going to play some kind of part. It’s up to you to decide what is achievable and appropriate for your cast, crew and audiences, but I was really clear from day one that we weren’t going to try and suddenly become Frantic Assembly. We had to find the Wokingham Theatre approach for the physical theatre, not try to emulate the Frantic way.
Right at the start of rehearsals we had a fantastic workshop with a Frantic Assembly practitioner, who explained how they approached the use of physicality as a way of telling the stories within the lines, which we’ve embraced in our approach. She gave us permission to just explore movement in a more playful way, and to almost throw out the stage directions within the script (obviously within reason!) and add our own slant to it, to find the stories beyond the words.
We’ve been lucky to have two fantastic movement experts helping us with this play; firstly Nicky Jagger-Ryan who set the mood for what we were trying to achieve, and then when she had to step down due to family commitments, we were joined by Keir Buist, who just gets it.
I’m pretty sure of my skill set as a director, and physical theatre is definitely outside of my wheelhouse. So to be able to turn to someone standing next to you who knows exactly what little sprinkling of stylised magic a moment needs, it’s just such a privilege to be able to share that way of working.
How does it feel to be at the helm of this play that is so different to other shows in the season?
It’s not very common for Wokingham Theatre to do this kind of storytelling, so I really applaud not only the cast for embracing everything we’re doing, but also the Board and Artistic Director for even putting this show in our season in the first place.
We’ve seen how well our audiences responded to productions in past seasons like ‘Enron’ and ‘Things I Know To Be True’, where directors pushed the limitations of what a “Wokingham Theatre Production” actually looks like. They paved the way for a show like Lovesong.
Increasingly, I think WT is upping the ante and flexing its theatrical muscles to raise the bar of what is achievable from a “community theatre”. I hope this production will be a bit of a watershed moment for WT, just like those shows in the past were.
What have rehearsals been like?
I said from the word go that this production needed a cast and crew to be open-minded, to explore play and to have rehearsals that might feel more like a workshop than traditional blocking rehearsals.
And they’ve been so brilliant at doing exactly that. I’m in awe of my cast, how they’ve managed to juggle everything I’ve thrown at them, not just from their beautiful performances but also the way they’ve totally embraced these very different methods of storytelling.
Rehearsals have just been so much fun. I love a small-cast play, where you have nowhere to hide and you have the time and capacity to explore every word, every suggestion, every bit of subtext and reflection.
We’ve had some really fantastic rehearsals where we’ve challenged each other, laughed with each other, and sometimes moved each other to tears. They’ve just worked so hard and been so open-minded, trusting the process and trusting me to bring this all to life, and I couldn’t be more thrilled with how it’s shaping up.
I sit in rehearsals, I watch them, and I just think, this is really something special.
Tell us more about the technical aspects?
We’re a cast of four, but I keep saying it’s like tech is the fifth actor on stage, because we have to think about the music, the movement, the lighting, the projections all as part of their performance, rather than just sitting alongside it.
These things are coming so much earlier into our conversation than they would traditionally. It’s been a lot to hold inside my head at times!
As director, you’re responsible for the overall vision so you have all these plates to spin, to be the answer to so many different departments, and I absolutely love that. I can see it so clearly in my minds eye, but the beauty of a team like we have at Wokingham Theatre is that they make that magic happen in front of you, making your wildest dreams a reality.
How have you handled the more sensitive parts of the storyline?
There are some challenging themes in this play, which are impossible to shy away from. A loved one recently said they didn’t think they were going to come watch, because they didn’t like the idea of a story about terminal illness forcing someone to look back at their life. And I respect that opinion, but this play is about so much more than that. Without wanting to get too philosophical, part of being human is this challenge to live in the moment, to not dwell too much in the past or worry too much about the future, but that’s just a part of life.
I love the juxtaposition of the two ages; the squabbles of youth about flirting with a boss or financial worries all seem to pale in significance when contrasted with an older couple handling a terminal illness, but that doesn’t make them any less important to the younger couple in their moment. It’s their truth too, and they have big things to consider as well.
How do you hope audiences feel watching this play?
I hope they feel moved but that they also find joy in the story, because ultimately it is a celebration of a life lived full of love.
Lovesong is an ordinary story about an ordinary relationship, performed in a totally extraordinary way. But its themes are universal; it’s about what a privilege it is to spend a lifetime loving and being loved by someone who sees you, just the way you are.
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Lovesong opens at Wokingham Theatre on Wednesday 21 January and runs until Saturday 31 January. There are still tickets available, which you can purchase here.
The cast is as follows:
Billy: Alan Long
Maggie: Eileen Pinkarchevski
William: Elliot Jedras
Margaret: Fran Hems
Director: Sophie Pierce
Stage Manager / Production Manager: Claire Lawrence
Production Designer: Ben Kellett