Miriam Battye Archives - North West End UK

9Feb

By Kira DanielsNo Comments

London

The Virgins – Soho Theatre

Oh my god, twist! And shout. Come on and work it on out. For these virgins, that’s pretty much the entire night’s agenda. Best friends Chloe (Anushka Chakravarti) and Jess (Ella Bruccoleri) are headed out for the night to “pull” for the very first time but find their plans needlessly complicated by the simple fact they have no idea what they actually want. Aided and abetted by the persistently peripheral Phoebe (Molly Hewitt-Richards), cool girl/experienced slut Anya (Zoë Armer), a bottle of Absolut vodka, and two liters of lemonade, they’re ready for anything, in theory. In practice, practice is about all they’re up for. Writer Miriam Battye’s playtext is clever and cringe in equal measure, and Jaz Woodcock-Stewart’s direction is funky and fresh, with particular flavour peppered...

Strategic Love Play – Soho Theatre

Two singletons walk into a bar, ready for (at least) a polite two drinks’ worth of getting-to-know-you chatter with a person they’ve never met outside the confines of their phone screen. What could go wrong? The dating app-induced first date is a scene many of us are all too familiar with, and it sets up the premise of Miriam Battye’s Strategic Love Play, currently playing at Soho Theatre until 15th June. We join the two characters — simply referred to as Woman (Letty Thomas) and Man (Archie Backhouse) — at their first meeting, and it’s abundantly clear from the get-go that they’re not on the same wavelength. While Man seems content exchanging bumbling pleasantries that avoid any risk of a genuinely enlightening conversation, Woman is bitingly honest and desperate to dig deeper....

Strategic Love Play – Soho Theatre

Dating in this day and age seems to be getting harder and harder, what with less natural ‘bumping into someone’ and more organised ‘meet ups’ with your fingers crossed that a spark lights and then you can finally relax because you’re back on track. ‘Him’ and ‘Her’ (Archie Backhouse and Letty Thomas) find themselves in a pub with two pints and both completely willing to make it work. But it doesn’t, she makes it difficult admitting that she’s unlovable and all she asks is for him to not lie. He, confused then of course lies and says ‘you’re great’ but I think I’m going to leave. Somehow she convinces him to stay. The next hour takes us through a whole evening of deep, truthful conversation ending with a contract of what ‘this’ is. They agree to be like those old couples holding hands, compl...