When put to the test the human will to survive reveals its strength. I LOVE YOU: A Story of Forbidden Love, is a timely story presented as part of 2017’s Sydney Fringe Festival. A fictional story set in Armenia 1919, consists of a sense of history, a social and political focus and a strong effeminate voice; the third theatre show written and produced by aspiring Sydney playwright Sage Godrei.
World War 1 was the war that undermined the foundations of Western Civilisation, this play follows the story of Isleen and Asad’s forbidden love. Isleen is a Muslim woman who betrays her Father, in order to love Asad, a Christian Armenian. Their mission involves working towards a constitutional government, rights for women and mixed marriages in Turkey and Armenia. The theatrical imagination explores psychology and the imitation of behaviour through the fight for human rights within this creative ensemble. Although not attempting to be didactic or theologian the play discusses some of the similarities between Christianity and Islam. In this rebellious form of theatre which invokes a sense of 20th century realism and 21st century altruism, the spectator becomes the observer and the human being the subject of inquiry.
Sage Godrei says “I believe that love will always find a way and am really thrilled to be producing a human rights play in the strain of the Epic Theatre method realised by the great Bertolt Brecht. I want the audience to see the possibilities of the world on the faces of the characters.”
On the Cusp Production’s I LOVE YOU: A Story of Forbidden Love will be produced including elaborate costumes, stylised movement through Eastern choreography, abstractions projections and restrained violence. In contradiction to modern theatre’s representation of the mundane urban routine share this story’s joy of revelation and ascendance through a profound fight for justice against a totalitarian rule.