Love Quirks

The Other Palace

Interview with Ayesha Patel, who plays Lily.

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The brand-new musical Love Quirks has been showing at The Other Palace for the last few weeks. Since seeing it, I cannot get the songs out of my head! That earworm has made its bed in my ear canals, and it's there to stay. The book, written by Mark Childers and Music/Lyrics by Seth Bisen Hersh, includes four characters that are unique, fun and quirky (of course). They all live together and are searching for love and connection with someone who meshes with their wants and needs. Relatable right! It's real, it's funny, and it's heartfelt.

We were lucky enough to speak to one of the incredible, vibrant cast members about their experience playing their character and how they explored the script to get there! Each character feels personal to the cast members, and the wickedly talented Ayesha Patel, who plays the intelligent and feisty Lily, does talk about this!

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Let's get into it:

Q: Tell us a bit about your character?

A: She's quirky, wacky, and very intelligent. She is in the middle of doing her master's, and she's completely stuck in nostalgia of a love she had for her first ever boyfriend, who comes out as gay, and she lives with him. She is a pro at self-sabotage. She plays off as this character who is funny, sarcastic, dry and silly.

The thesis and theories she talks about writing, about women, feminism, and gender politics throughout the show, I'm blown away by her mind. It's like she's doing all these things to cover up her fear of vulnerability, connection and putting yourself out there for someone, a very human fear of rejection. She is that classic example of someone who has been on a few bad dates and uses them to get the idea that all men are awful. She wears a metaphorical armour. Deep down, she is a romantic, but she's protecting herself.

Q: How did you prep yourself for the role and make it your own?

A: The script was my starting point. I sat down with it quite a few times and wrote down everything my character says about anyone else, everything everyone else says about my character and all things that are facts in the script. Then, I would look at how active she is in scenes. Focusing on whether she initiates conversation or does she bounces back. I found she was a very active character. The cast has this joke that Lily is quite vicious, but I don't think she is. She doesn't talk badly about any other characters behind their backs; she says what she thinks to their face, and you do see moments where other characters talk about others behind their backs, but she doesn't. She says it how it is!

It was fun to find that she is active, when she's being hesitant to be active, and that's been really fun to play with. For me, when it comes to building characters, it is finding how they react socially in scenes and how that relates to their energy or how they interact and if they do the opposite, questioning why. It could lead to fears or intentions. It was hard to find what she wanted, but I'm happy with my interpretation!

Q: What is your favourite costume?

A: In one of the scenes, I have a green polka dot dress, with the purple headband and this purple 70s Stevie Nicks style top on top of it. I LOVE the teal tights as well! There is a lot of Lily's wardrobe that I actually already have! Like the tights and the Guinness t-shirt in Act 2 is mine. The green dress is just my favourite, it's not something I would normally wear, but I really enjoy it and it's comfortable. We had 45 minutes with the costume designer, Alice McNicholas, and she showed us a rail full of different outfits that our characters could wear. We had the opportunity to, in a way, construct our own wardrobe. She would also pick out outfits and ask where we thought we would wear them in the show. We played around with wearing different things. There are some items that we would rewear differently in scenes, so the items look lived in.

Q: What is your favourite moment in the show?

A: I really enjoy the scene where Lily and Chris hang out for the first time. They're alone in the flat for the first time and are forced to spend time alone together. Without giving too much away, Lily calls him out on something that everyone can see, but no one calls him out on it, and she does. But the moment I love is when the two other characters come in drunk, and Steph and Chris have a chat together. That chat really just hits me, even in the rehearsal room. So many things in that scene are said and unsaid, it's really fun to play with.

Q: What is your favourite song in the show?

A: My favourite song changes! When I first started with the show, my answer would have been 'Waking', I love Clodagh Greene's song at the beginning of Act Two. It's so vulnerable, and it has a nice journey to it. Of my own songs, I love 'I'd Rather Take a Nap', it's really fun, witty and relatable. I feel like I understand it, and it's a bit of me! I've been on the dates she talks about, and they are BAD. One of my recent favourites is the group number 'You can't always choose who you love'. All four of us are on different journeys in that number, and it's nice to get an insight into the more vulnerable moments of both Chris and Ryan. You don't get to see into that much until this song, and so it's quite nice to have that. It shows everyone's similarities and differences as characters; it's very real and Sondheim-esque, almost.

Q: How would you sum the show up in one sentence?

A: It's about 4 people living together and navigating the want for connection, the different types of love and moving on from the fallouts of it... in a FUN way!!

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Make sure you catch the incredible Ayesha Patel in the new musical 'Love Quirks' before it closes on 12th October 2025! Click here to book your tickets.