I took a trip out to a theatre matinee today to catch Tongues and Savage Love at the Seven Dials Playhouse, reimagined for 2024.
Co-created by playwright/performer Sam Shepard and director/performer Joseph Chaikin, the two pieces of experimental theatre are often programmed together.
The twist here is that they are not performed standalone, but rather interwoven together so that Tongues (Suzy Whitefield) and Savage/Love (Bernice Pike) bounce off each other.
A careful curation of links between the monologues of the former and poems of the latter gives the two pieces greater resonance. It’s a bold move.
An important aspect of both Tongues and Savage/Love is rhythm of words and, in the case of Tongues, music, usually percussion.
In this new version, music is provided by harpist Chris Clarke and electric guitarist Juan Carlos. Both utilise their instruments in unexpected ways at times, offering both support and challenge to the performers.
Director Laura Allen has the performers move a lot around the stage floor, sitting on chairs, standing against walls, crouching, interacting with the musicians and occasionally the audience members, using old-style microphones.
It makes the piece very rangy and wild, with an unpredictable feel. I enjoyed the atmosphere, which whispered with the spirit of the Beat Generation as much as Women’s Liberation.
Monologue and poetry can so often be static on stage; in the hands of Whitefield and Pike they felt like real conversations and memories.
Choosing to open with the ‘First moment’ segment from Savage/Love, we are straight into the characters who populate Shepard’s world – old jaded ladies, vain young men, twisted killers, sensual girls.
These are segments without a narrative, but about love and distance (Savage/Love) and, in the case of Tongues, conflict.
I missed the power of Tongues as a play in and of itself, and felt the ‘Hunger’ segment was a little lost in the new configuration.
However, other moments such as ‘When you die’ and ‘From this moment on’ do work well, but the restructuring feels odd.
I know Savage/Love a little less, but am aware it consists of 19 poems, only loosely connected. ‘Tangled up’ aches with playful eroticism, enhanced by ‘Haunted’ and ‘Beggar’.
There’s passion in this play, as well as persuasion, pride, and pain. There is lust, love, loss, and longing.
The musical elements work well in this dual presentation, with the harp being a very welcome inclusion, with both bell and tambourine adding colour here and there.
As for the lighting (Benjamin Vetluzhskikh), I found it most effective in spotlights and shadows. A couple of times, there was a flood of lights flashing, but it wasn’t needed.
The words were enough to keep us in the moment, and both performers were excellent with accents, emotions, and chemistry.
This may not be the traditional version of Tongues and Savage/Love in performance but it is an intriguing concept which chips away at the text, reforms and recalibrates it, and drags it out in a different shape and form.
At the Seven Dials Playhouse to 25 Jan.
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