Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Heléne Yorke and Michael Zegen navigate the spiky terrain of modern dating in STRATEGIC LOVE PLAY

• By drediman
• November 12, 2024
• No Comments

Also last night, Strategic Love Play by Miriam Battye (perhaps best known for lending her writing talents to hit television shows like Succession) opened Off-Broadway at the Minetta Lane Theater, courtesy of the folks over at Audible Theater, who have become prolific presenters of live theater as of late. The premise seems simple and unassuming enough — at some undisclosed dive bar in New York, we meet an unnamed couple on their first date. Having connected on a dating app, Battye’s new play finds the two characters having to navigate the spiky terrain that is modern dating and romance.

Almost immediately, they get off on the wrong foot, and we quickly get the sense that their chemistry is off — she’s a tad too overbearing, he’s skittish and can’t seem to say the right things. But what’s fascinating about the play is how it subtly and stealthily departs from the world of naturalism to a state that’s at once more heightened — and uninhibited — than real life. In this conjured realm, the characters are given free reign to articulate their wants and desires without any hesitation or threat of being rejected. In this regard, I was pleasantly reminded of the kind of intellectually stimulating two-handers that the British seem so good at producing, namely engrossing plays like Nick Payne’s Constellation or Duncan MacMillan’s Lungs, just to name a few. By giving them the ability to soulfully and fancifully glimpse into the possibility of a full life together, the couple is removed from the largely transactional landscape that dictates modern dating, especially in large city’s like New York — until that ability is jarringly taken away.

Thanks to some thoughtful design decisions, the Audible Theater production by director Katie Posner does a wonderful job of balancing naturalism and heightened theatricality, particularly in the latter portion of the play. Strategic Love Play features Heléne Yorke (although most may recognize her from The Other Two on television, I still fondly remember her boisterous supporting performance as Olive in the musical adaptation of Bullets Over Broadway) and Michael Zegen (The Marvelous Mrs Maisel), both of whom excel in roles that seem tailor made for their strengths and characteristics as actors — Yorke deliciously taps into her ability to provoke and instigate, while Zegen is as lovable and self-inflictedly frustrated as ever.

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STRATEGIC LOVE PLAY
Off-Broadway, Play
Audible Theater at the Minetta Lane Theater
1 hour, 10 minutes (without an intermission)
Through December 7