I Want To Know What Love Is

When you tell people you’re off to the theatre, it’s hard not to sing the name of this play. “I Want to Know What Love Is” is just one of the many pop songs that helps bring to life a performance devised by members of the Queensland theatre collective The Good Room. They said to the public “I want you to show me”: asking for submissions about stories of love. And they brought them together for the stage in a messy way - which is appropriate because, after all, love is anything but clean and tidy.

And, boy, do they bring them together with energy and fun. Four actors - Tom Cossettini, Amy Ingram, Katrina Foster and Emily Tomlins – sing, kiss, cavort, whisper, yell, fondle and thrust as they recount declarations of love. Many of the proclamations are romantic but some are more lustful or involve other forms of desire: “Submission Number 19. I have never been in love. I want to, more than anything in the world”. “Submission Number 87: “It’s been years, but I still think of you and wonder ‘What could have been?’”

By weaving together these stories, we traverse tales of attraction, rejoicing, yearning, rejection, loneliness and often sex. The performances are incredibly physical, with the actors using piles and piles of artificial rose petals to rejoice or lament their feelings. At times, the audience might feel they’re eavesdropping on an acting class, where the performers are “connecting” with their emotions. But it works, and the audience certainly buys in. They whoop, cheer and laugh loudly at the many sharp lines and outrageous comments made by those in and out of love.

I would have liked to delve more into stories in depth, to build some characters rather than simply survey the submissions. My interest waned during parts of the show. But many in the largely young audience seemed to approve of this more superficial observation of love’s variety, probably because it allows for some cutting one-liners, which are enthusiastically admired.

The performances are stellar. All four actors show a diversity of emotions in a nuanced way, jumping into the physicality of the piece without fear. Amy Ingram is particularly impressive – everything she says and does feels completely truthful, often devastatingly so. 

This Sydney season of a production that’s toured the country was delayed because of covid. Just as well – most of the acts of love here are not socially distanced. And that was worth waiting for: it’s great to see this home-grown work brought to life with such zeal.

Peter Gotting

Photographer: Stephen Henry