16/08/23

Summerhall (Roundabout), Edinburgh

So, they have both swiped right on their phones and here they are, meeting up for that all-important first date. Him (Archie Backhouse) is finally getting over a failed relationship and is ready to look for someone new. Her (Letty Thomas) has a different agenda entirely. She wants to cut the crap, avoid all the usual platitudes, go straight for the jugular. And he isn’t quite ready for the onslaught of home truths he’s about to be bombarded with.

Strategic Love Play, written by Miriam Battye and directed by Katie Posner, is a spare and cynical piece that keeps heading in unexpected directions. No sooner do I think I have the measure of it, then it veers off again and the result is as intriguing as it is unsettling. I enjoy it most in its opening stretches when Her is letting rip, shredding all the familiar notions of romance and gleefully tossing them into the wastebasket. It’s cynical, abrasive and very funny.

But as her demands and expectations develop, the more outrageous and off-the-wall the narrative becomes, a bleak and cynical philosophy about the nature of relationships and the scant possibilities of love and life in the age of Tinder.

Both actors submit pitch-perfect performances and I love Rhys Jarman’s simple but effective set design, the tight circle that spins around to show us a different view of the two characters: the merry-go-round of human relationships; the endless quest to find the perfect partner as the passengers spin around and around, just to end up back where they began.

And I love the surprise uses to which an overhead lamp can be put.

I don’t want to say too much about where this ends up – but the conclusion catches me by surprise as much as it catches Him. Despite all the laughs, this is ultimately a brutal and misanthropic play, with a jaundiced view of human relationships.

But, as I leave Roundabout, I make an important decision: I’m going to borrow that little trick with a packet of crisps.

3.8 stars

Philip Caveney