A refreshingly quirky and original take on the romance genre, Miriam Battye’s new two-hander Strategic Love Play (Fringe First Winner, 2023) is clever, subversive and oddly convincing.

Our two protagonists start the play sitting across from one another for their first date, the table small but the divide excruciatingly wide. As the play progresses, the tension only heightens, and we cringe along with every horrific clanger.  Until, eventually… we don’t.

From the outset, Jenny (Letty Thomas) takes charge, moving the revolving set around as deftly as she steers the conversation: a powerhouse as our feisty and social awkward heroine.  Hapless Adam (Archie Blackhouse) does all he can to hang on, both literally and metaphorically.  His engagingly naturalistic and slightly bumbling characterisation provides the perfect humanising counterbalance, and it’s a superb comic turn.

The direction (Katie Posner) is assured and consistent, allowing the actors to milk every drop of pathos and wit out of each repetition, hesitation and unfinished sentence, often gaining as many laughs from the silences as from the witty back and forth of the script.

By the end of it all, we are as in love with the characters as they are with their strange little pact (and possibly each other). This show is a must-see for anyone currently navigating the confusing world of dating, and for those of us who are just relieved that we don’t have to.

Playing 5:10pm daily, ROUNDABOUT @ Summerhall 2 – 27 Aug 2023.