White Girl, part of White (2008) – with Hettie Macdonald, won the TV Spielfilm Award at the Cologne Conference Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett, who share the credits for direction and choreography, create moments of gorgeous physicality. Ian William Galloway's elegant video design is full of swooshing starlings, and there's spacious music to define the mood. LOVESONG sees acclaimed theatre company Frantic Assembly join forces with celebrated writer Abi Morgan for a new play about lifelong love. Abigail Louise Morgan was born in Cardiff, Wales, in 1968. [1] [2] She is the daughter of actress Pat England and theatre director Gareth Morgan, who was director of the Gulbenkian Theatre in Newcastle upon Tyne (now the Northern Stage). Her parents divorced when she was a teenager and her childhood was spent moving around the country while her mother acted in repertory theatre; she told The Scotsman in 2010 that she had attended seven separate schools during her childhood. [3] Her sister is the fundraiser at London's Unicorn Theatre. [4] The production values within Love Song are enough to make you swoon, too. Carolyn Downing’s sound design with Ian William Galloway’s video projections evoke the emotions that Frantic Assembly seeks to gain from its audience. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t moved emotionally and shed a tear or two by the end; only a man with a heart of stone couldn’t be moved by Love Song.

Morgan gained her first television writing credit in 1998 on the continuing ITV drama series Peak Practice, following that with a television play My Fragile Heart (2000) and a BBC2 drama Murder in 2002, starring Julie Walters. [4] Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Archived from the original on 14 July 2022 . Retrieved 25 February 2020. A playful, heart-warmingly funny and tragic drama, LOVESONG speaks to all ages with its exploration of ageing, falling in love, and the fragility of life.A staunch opponent of Brexit, Morgan was one of nine leading playwrights to contribute to a series of online dramas in 2017 responding to the causes and consequences of the EU referendum result. Entitled Brexit Shorts, Morgan's monologue, The End, starred Penelope Wilton as a woman on the brink as she faces the consequences of the end of her 43-year-old marriage. [11] Non Fiction [ edit ] What's going on between Abi Morgan and Kristin Scott Thomas?". www.standard.co.uk. 7 February 2014. Archived from the original on 13 April 2021 . Retrieved 13 April 2021. Abi Morgan meets Bola Agbaje | Guru Encounters". BAFTA Guru. 7 October 2015. Archived from the original on 10 November 2015 . Retrieved 13 October 2015. Lovesong from acclaimed playwright Abi Morgan played at the Drum Theatre Plymouth 30th September to 15 October 2011, then opened in Washington DC in Autumn 2011 followed by a run at Sheffield Crucible from 19th October, before transferring to the Lyric Hammersmith, London where it was captured by Digital Theatre.

Leading playwrights create Brexit dramas for The Guardian". The Guardian. 19 June 2017. Archived from the original on 13 April 2021 . Retrieved 13 April 2021. SAM COX’S recent stage work includes Anne Boleyn, All’s Well That Ends Well (both Shakespeare’s Globe), Inherit the Wind (Old Vic), Arcadia (West End), God in Ruins (RSC/Soho), Macbeth and King John (both RSC). His film and TV work includes Doctor Who (BBC TV), Prime Suspect (Granada) and Hippy Hippy Shake. Leanne Rowe and Edward Bennett play the young couple, while Sian Phillips and Sam Cox play their older incarnations. Directed by Frantic Assembly’s artistic directors Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett, Lovesong continues at the Lyric until 28 January.

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Frantic Assembly’s touring production of ABI MORGAN’s new play LOVESONG comes to the Citizens Theatre this February. Renowned actress Siân Phillips will be joined by Sam Cox, who will play her husband, and Leanne Rowe and Edward Bennett, who will play the same couple as their younger selves.

Morgan wrote the legal drama The Split, about the private and professional lives of divorce lawyers, first shown on BBC1 in April 2018. The high-concept premise is that the same couple is portrayed by Sam Cox and Sian Phillips over a few days late in life, and in their 20s and 30s by the younger actors. Each pair of actors almost always interacts only with each other, but all four are frequently on stage at the same time: the end of one scene overlaps with the next, and Morgan skillfully sets up plot points and themes in one frame that are supplemented or advanced by information provided in the other. Older Billy opens the fridge in his spacious middle-American kitchen, and out pops Margaret in a ’60s outfit, gleefully exploring the home they’re just moving into. Going through boxes of stuff from the attic, Maggie wonders why they ever needed those silly Chinese lanterns — and the lanterns then appear in a climactic scene in the earlier plot. Ravindran, Manori (27 January 2020). "Writer Abi Morgan Reveals Breast Cancer Diagnosis". Variety. Archived from the original on 28 January 2020 . Retrieved 13 March 2020.Frantic Assembly is celebrated at home and abroad for creating thrilling, energetic and unforgettable theatre. The company attracts new and young audiences with work that reflects contemporary culture. Vivid and dynamic, Frantic Assembly’s unique physical style combines movement, design, music and text. Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett formed Frantic Assembly in 1994. Scott and Steven have since performed in or directed all of the company’s work. They seek to collaborate on original ideas with today’s most exciting artists. a b Lewis, Helen (15 October 2015). "Abi Morgan on Suffragette: "These were voiceless women. We gave them a voice" ". New Statesman. Archived from the original on 17 February 2017 . Retrieved 16 February 2017. The Mistress Contract at The Royal Court Theatre". The Royal Court Theatre. Archived from the original on 15 September 2013 . Retrieved 13 September 2013. Bafta Film Awards 2012: Nominations". BBC News. 27 March 2012. Archived from the original on 18 January 2012 . Retrieved 17 January 2012.

The title of this piece is interesting. Love songs so often focus on one element – passion, euphoria, loss – but Abi Morgan’s play, developed together with choreography from Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett of Frantic Assembly, considers love over the long haul … I would have welcomed more astringency and less tugging at the heartstrings. But the sympathy of the piece and the candour of the four performances gradually lift it into a tender meditation on time and our place in it … The drama is at its best when at its most wry, specific or frank: when the older Billy expresses his terror and grief at his wife’s impending death by launching into a tirade, for example. And the physical detail can be very touching: as when Bennett lifts Phillips in a loving duet. It is a gentle, compassionate piece, but would be more moving still if it strove less hard to be so.” In 2009 the Drum Theatre had major success with a new ‘horror’ comedy, Grand Guignol by Carl Grose as well as producing a new experimental work, Under the Influence, with Ontroerend Goed for production in Plymouth and Ghent, before touring internationally. The Drum again collaborated with Ontroerend Goed in 2010 on Teenage Riot as well as co-producing Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice with ATC and DC Moore’s The Empire with the Royal Court. The Drum has recently collaborated with Told by an Idiot on And The Horse You Rode In On; with Paines Plough on Love, Love, Love by Mike Bartlett and with ATC on The Golden Dragon. Most recently it produced Chekhov in Hell by Dan Rebellato with runs in Plymouth and at the Soho Theatre, London. In addition to previously announced tour dates, new dates have been added at the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow in February 2012.Siân Phillips is one of Britain's most respected actors. Her recent stage work includes the role of Juliet in Juliet and her Romeo (Bristol Old Vic), Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Broadway) and Calendar Girls (West End/tour). Her screen work includes her BAFTA-winning role in I, Claudius (BBC TV), as well as such seminal works as Goodbye Mr Chips, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Dune. She has also performed live with musician Rufus Wainwright at the Old Vic. Love is a leap of faith. Abi Morgan’s new play Lovesong takes the audience with a couple, Margaret and William, as they take that leap into married life in a foreign country. He is a dentist she a homemaker; together they make the move to the US. Their journey through life is told by the couple in old age, as played by Sam Cox and Sian Phillips, as they interact on stage with their younger selves, played by Leanne Rowe and Edward Bennett. ABI MORGAN’S writing for the screen includes The Invisible Woman, the Margaret Thatcher film Iron Lady, starring Meryl Streep, the flagship BBC TV drama The Hour and the BAFTA award-winning drama Sex Traffic (Channel 4). She has recently collaborated with Steve McQueen and Michael Fassbender on the upcoming feature film Shame. She previously worked with Frantic Assembly on the much praised Tiny Dynamite, and her other previous writing for the stage includes The Night Is Darkest Before The Dawn (part of the Tricycle Theatre’s Great Game season), Fugee (NT New Connections), Tender (Hampstead) and Splendour (Paines Plough).