Metamodernists In Love
21 June 2025
Camden People’s Theatre
4.0 out of 5.0 stars
Metamodernists in Love is a new interactive theatre experience by Sofya Krasnova. Inspired by 50 interviews and stories all about modern love, it concerns itself with love in today’s age, and how people experience it in varying ways. Underlined with piano and accordion music by Evgeniya Popova, it’s an almost surreal experience.
Split into two acts, the first is made up mainly of two storylines, both revolving around Eva, the main protagonist played expertly by Hannah Harris, while Ethan Roberts takes on all other roles. The stories are fairly abstract, with elements of surrealist theatre and absurdist comedy, broken up by fourth-wall breaks and inter-spliced observer scenes. There is a lot of humour in this delightful work examining expectations and definitions of love. With only mild audience participation in the first act, the creative narratives defying expectation are centred, aided by exceedingly strong acting talent of both main performers, oozing charisma and charm while effortlessly slipping from character to character. They are both an absolute delight to watch.
The second act feels like a completely different show, centring the audience and opening up discussion while presenting short snippets from various interviews. An almost documentarian exercise bleeding into ethics discussion workshop territory. Illuminating discourse is encouraged and guided by the actors, highlighting different interpretations from various audience members. While this was a fascinating interlude, it did drag on a little too much. The first ten to fifteen minutes immersed the audience in the breadth of subjectivity when it comes to emotional expression within humans, after which it felt a little repetitive and forced when example after example was presented and discussed. While the confrontation and pushing of boundaries raised interest at first, a severe chop of running time could aid in leaving audiences fresh and eager to continue discussing after the show.
Part drama performance, part concert, part presentation, part workshop, Metamodernists in Love is a unique, brilliant experiment that could benefit from a little restraint.
