Little Love is the title of a monologue by Jessica Bellamy. It has also been adapted into a short film, but I am referring to the performance of the monologue itself.
The story is told by a man with blueish green eyes, ones that almost match his shirt. He is much older than someone who would be in school, but he recants a brief school love, a girl called Bat Eyes. She can barely see, but when he insults her, she smacks him hard across the cheek. She then takes him to her room and shares some of herself with him, some of what she can't help but find beautiful. She cannot see but she can feel, touch, smell, hear, and everything is in her room. Every texture, every aroma, everything is in there with the two of them. They are together and suddenly they are not.
Let's start with setting, costuming and casting. The set itself is a bathroom, one within a house or apartment. It has brick walls, tiling, and an oval mirror. Talking to the audience is a pale, blonde australian man around his later twenties. He is likely wearing pants, but all we see is his blue button-up shirt. The light is soft and mostly to one side.
The man himself, we'll call him Adam, recants his story with conviction, the conviction of something that is irrevocably true. He looks into your eyes and relates exactly how it went with him and Bat Eyes, hinting that he misses her both with his body language and his tone.
The monologue mentions a poem, When You Are Old, by William Butler Yates. It comes up several times and is a main thread to the narration. It ties one bead to the next. Wonderfully, the monologue itself is written and recited like a poem, one that's real. There is a live rhythm as well as a lively and convincing actor to play the part of its storyteller.
All of these elements put together do not detract from the story itself. They do this wonderful love story justice in a careful, loving way.
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