Strategic Love Play at Edinburgh Fringe ★★★½
★★★½ Strategic Love Play | ROUNDABOUT @ Summerhall | Aug 14, 16-21, 23-27 | 5:20pm
Love and dating go wrong then right then wrong again, as Miriam Battye’s Strategic Love Play flits between searing analysis of the transactionality of modern dating and sweet romcom.
Jenny (Letty Thomas) and Adam (Archie Blackhouse) are on a first date and it’s going terribly – he’s dull, she’s hostile. Desperate for an end to the ‘game’ of dating, she abandons social norms and tries to lead him out of the wilderness. The dialogue feels, at times, excessively self aware, but as the characters move out of the disaster-zone of the first date and towards a future together it becomes more believable and more enjoyable as the two balance displays of vulnerability with Battye’s sharp humor.
The text is pacy, and Blackhouse and Thomas give finely tuned performances that keep up with its tonal shifts with grace. It’s a highly enjoyable hour, but for all its wit, Strategic Love Play doesn’t quite earn its ending, and its final moments feel clumsy and unsatisfying.
