May 2015

Written by Mike Bartlett

Directed by Mark Maguire

It is 1967 and The Beatles claim that, “all you need is love”.  At a bedsit in London, Kenneth and Sandra meet for the first time and embrace this idealistic, carefree approach to life.  

Love, Love, Love follows the lives of Kenneth and Sandra from idealistic Oxford undergraduates to wealthy, divorced retirees with resentful, damaged children, exploring the effects their ‘laissez faire’ attitudes have on the next generation.

Mike Bartlett’s play is a funny, insightful, often caustic, critique of the children of the “Summer of Love” which asks some challenging questions.  Are the liberal attitudes of the “baby boomer” generation really to blame for the debt-ridden and adrift generation of their children?  Or do we simply find it easier to create villains to avoid taking responsibility and control of our own lives?

Originally produced in 2010 by Paines Plough, Love, Love, Love won a UK Theatre Award for Best Play in 2011.

“Why did you listen to us? We’re your parents. Sandra and me, we never listened to a word our parents said. Why the hell did you take any notice of what we told you?” – Kenneth