I (HONESTLY) LOVE YOU

Love’s Labour’s Lies

I (Honestly) Love You is on at The Blueroom Theatre from Thursday, May 17, ‘til Saturday, June 2. Click on over to blueroom.org.au to pick up your tickets.

Take a moment to consider how much happens when you embark on a new relationship. Along with thrilling dependency comes glimpsing the world through another’s eyes; discarding some habits and adopting others (good or bad); tasting new ideas, rituals, foods or landscapes; a slew of added friends and family; a tapestry of physical intimacy and affection; and many other catalysts, including overwhelming blasts of attraction and attachment.

While most people would agree with the idiom that “honesty is the best policy”, imagine if you had to undergo all these new experiences that without the ability to keep your innermost thoughts to yourself, or to let out one or two harmless little white lies to keep your new partner content.

A new local theatre production explores what happens when two people fall deeply and madly in love – the catch is that they share the extremely rare psychological condition of only being able to tell the truth at all times.

As award winning playwright Damon Lockwood attests, he originally came up with the idea for I (Honestly) Love You when he was struck with the idea of creating a performance piece focusing on psychological disorders effecting people’s ability to express themselves. “All good plays are either about the best or worst day of your life,” he begins. “I just thought to myself, ‘When are the stakes the highest?’.”

While Lockwood admits that beginning with the seed of a premise regarding a rare psychological condition of being able to tell the truth at all times gave him a wealth of possibilities when it came to narrative, he was drawn to the idea of a love story early on. “Being in a relationship is where honesty comes under the most amount of pressure,” he says. “It doesn’t matter if you’ve been in a relationship for eight months or two years, the same issues of honesty and trust are going to arise.”

Rather than focusing on the medical aspects of the two main character’s conditions, however, I (Honestly) Love You explores the deepest of all human emotions in a fast paced satire packed with wit and humour. “The whole night is coming from a joyous place,” Lockwood attests. “It’s not really light-hearted – it’s dark, but it’s funny at the same time.”

As Lockwood attests, despite his play’s surreal premise he’s hoping local audiences will find elements of his character’s emotions and actions relatable to their own lives and romantic circumstances. “I would hope that the message of the play reveals itself to audiences at the end of the night, but I can reveal that there’s some carpe diem and all that. To be in a relationship is to be human,” he concludes. “To have trouble with that relationship is even more human.

_JENNIFER PETERSON-WARD

BALLS OF STEEL

Hair metal throwbacks Steel Panther are “more infectious than a bad case of herpes” and they’re set to bring the love back to Perth this year. After rocking the main stage of Soundwave back in March, the LA rockers will hit the stage of Metro City on Wednesday, October 10.

RIDE WITH ME

Do you remember what you were doing in 1992? Well, Mark Gardener does: he had just released the masterpiece Going Blank Again with his British alt-rock group Ride. To celebrate that momentous year, Gardener is heading to Australia on an acoustic tour where he will revisit some of that shoegaze classic as well as other hits from across his career.

BAKED SALMON

With his name synonymous with The Scientists, The Surrealists, Beasts Of Bourbon, and oh so many more, Kim Salmon is one of the most influential musicians ever to have cut their teeth Perth. He promises to “guitarfuck” Perth when he drops by The Bakery on Saturday, July 28.

SKY’S THE LIMIT

Combined their talents on full length album Songs Of The Southern Skies, Katie Noonan and Karin Schaupp are now joining forces for an Australian tour. The album features contributions from the likes of artists Iva Davies, Gurrumul, The Living End’s Chris Cheney and heaps more.

GROWING UP

You may have seen them on the Rage couch over the weekend, but you will have to wait until August until you see them again. They are Melbourne rockers Children Collide and they’ve just released their third album Monuments.

SKULL CANDY

Fresh from the announcement that On The Bright Side is taking a year off, we get one more Splendour In The Grass sideshow announcement. UK trio Band Of Skulls are returning to our shores for their Sweetening Up Winter tour and they will step into The Bakery on Monday, July 23,

SMILING POLITELY

It’s official: there is not going to be an On The Bright Side festival in Perth this year, but we can tell you that at least one of the Splendour In The Grass headliners is making their way to Perth in 2012! The Smashing Pumpkins are true survivors of the ‘90s grunge movement.

WAKE ME UP

After pulling the pin on his proposed stop in WA earlier this year due to a stirring bout of pneumonia, George Michael has announced dates to make up for it, including a stop in WA which will go down in history.