STRATEGIC LOVE PLAY
SHOULD COME WITH A WARNING

As the old love adage goes: Boy meets Girl, Girl interrogates Boy, Boy tries to leave unsuccessfully, Girl and Boy reconvene… oh, wait, this is the new love adage. Or at least the modern dating app version presented in Miriam Battye’s new work, Strategic Love Play.

Directed by Matthew Gardiner in Signature Theater’s intimate ARK Theater, this play should come with a warning: Emotional triggers ahead.

Danny Gavigan as Man and Bligh Voth as Woman are thrown together on a blind date from an unknown dating app in a generic bar in New York City, where, for 75 minutes without intermission, they struggle to make a sincere connection.

Their pain is definitely felt by the audience. Their uncomfortable encounter is transferred to their spectators, which makes this a difficult play to sit through. In fact, their tension is on steroids. So much so that it is a bit hard to believe.

Voth’s character is unrelentingly combative from the start, seemingly testing her suitor in a quiz which he fails, confessing that she is not for him and that he just wants to go home. When have you ever witnessed this type of honesty on a first date?

Then, for some unexplained reason, he reappears with second drinks and chips in hand, only to continue the agonizing and forced reunion. The two eventually, if only momentarily, buy into a fantasy that they become lovers and attend a barbecue together as a couple and introduce each other to friends and family. They even engage in a passionate kiss, only to drift apart again. Are singles really this desperate?

Playwright Battye believes the complications presented in the script are realistic. In an interview she wrote, “But actually, if you stare at it [the blind date], it’s very high stakes. You can break someone and get yourself broken… It’s an uncomfortable tightrope walk, between something that you’re supposed to be casual about, and something that can snap that last thread of dignity you have.”

The date drags on and the characters move through a plethora of emotions – irritation, frustration, anger, sadness, remorse, warmness and affection, to exhaustion.

A one-person show is hard to pull off, but apparently so is a two-hander. It feels as if the actors wear out their welcome. Adding to the impression that we, as the audience, can’t escape this social experiment nightmare is Set Designer Paige Hathaway’s claustrophobic pub in glaring reddish tones, exposing neon lights, one high top table with two stools, and Sound Designer Kenny Neal’s imposing club music as the audience is seated.

In the end, was the social experiment worth it? The time, the emotional investment, a few bucks for the drinks?

One also has to wonder: Is the play inadequate in its torturous result, or is it successful by being too painfully realistic in revealing the subtext of what goes on during a blind date? The jury is still out. The play left me with more questions than answers.

photos of Danny Gavigan and Bligh Voth by Christopher Mueller

Strategic Love Play
Signature Theatre
Ark Theatre, 4200 Campbell Ave in Arlington, VA
75 minutes with no intermission
ends on November 9, 2025
for tickets, call 703-820-9771 or visit Signature

for more shows, visit Theatre in DC