The Corpus Playroom was swelling with excitement; every seat was filled, audience members waved to one another, embraced one another, enquired about children and life nonchalantly before their kin appeared on the stage. It was difficult not to notice the sense of community that surrounds and forms a central part of director Richard McNally’s ‘Seven Words for Love’, a project written by seven different writers, performed by eleven different actors, and based upon what the project claims are the seven Ancient Greek words for love. Every individual involved has a background that is widely different, from a professional playwright to an Italian poet, from drama graduates to gap year students; the diversity was, needless to say, refreshing.

This idea of community extended to the very core of the play itself; a drama of interconnected lives set in Cambridge, where the young woman having an affair with a married man just so happens to be in the same community ‘mindfulness’ class as his wife. The seven scenes reflect the everyday struggles of love and friendship: the young teenage girl feeling the weight of peer pressure, the bickering family at the dinner table, the man who has an itch that his disabled partner cannot scratch. The changes in pace and scene (the play is committed to creating an atmosphere, bringing out several tables, chairs and laptops to represent an office, for example), as well as the humour, keep the production alive throughout the two hour running time. There are instances of skilled dramatic craftsmanship, as the play structures itself beautifully around the character of John, homeless, isolated, and unloved, an ingenious core for the events to circle around, and played with incredible rawness by Jonathan Totman.

Besides the few hints, however – the red hoody with ‘Agape’ printed upon it, the chemical symbols spelling out ‘Eros’ – it was difficult to notice or keep track of the seven types of love, even upon reflection. Certain scenes were dragged out for what seemed like comedic or dramatic purposes, although it hindered the pacing and made them humourless and destroyed any form of suspense. The finale, which had many chances to climax and end powerfully, was stretched out too, although it redeemed itself with its final moment, a bittersweet scene of reflection and enlightenment for the characters, love and death intermingled.

Seven Words for Love is, quite simply, an entertaining piece of theatre that doesn’t quite reach what its concept is capable of. The talent of the acting cast is mixed, and the scenes, at times, do not blend as harmoniously and eloquently as an interconnected drama like this should. Yet McNally and the seven writers are very much aware of their audience, of their community, and the play is not in honour of the classical and philosophical musings of love, but in honour of the community, united to stage a production together.