Playing Love is an hour of fast-paced fun and tangled affections—a different take on the romantic entanglements we tend to see in media. Here, the familiar triangle becomes something messier: a four-sided, high-energy tangle where faith, desire, queerness, and intellect wrestle for dominance, all under one roof.
The writing by Aidan Monks is sharp, wordy, and brimming with wit. At times, the constant back-and-forth, of who loves whom, who knows what secret, and who will propose, risks circling the same emotional territory, but it’s delivered with such charm and verbal dexterity that it never truly drags. Monks has managed to write a sex-and-love comedy about priests yet these characters are not just the episcopalian cousin to Fleabag’s Hot Priest – whilst equally as powerful, Monks carefully crafted his individual characters into something wonderfully original.
The fourth wall is occasionally broken, and while it sometimes feels slightly out of place, it’s still enjoyable—if anything, I’d have liked to see it used more.
The cast is uniformly excellent. Tatiana Kneale, as Celeste, brings a delicious indignation toward the boys and a swooning adoration for Mathilde, making her an essential counterbalance to the central love tangle. Geordie Coles, as Philip, makes a memorable entrance in his boxers—charming and funny, silly without ever slipping into stupidity. Daisy Lilingston’s Matilda is the magnetic centre of the story: the kind of girl you’d normally find infuriating for her moments of self-obsession, yet here, she’s almost irresistibly charming. No wonder three-quarters of the characters want to marry her. And Jonathan Stock’s Jeffrey is a revelation—so captivating it sometimes feels like he’s the show’s true protagonist. His outrageous boxer moments, brilliant physical comedy, and endless crawling on the floor are both skilful and hilarious.
The set is deceptively simple: a central sofa surrounded by a book-lover’s dream of scattered literature. I think I might want to move in.
Behind the scenes, the show is bolstered by a dedicated creative team. Directed by Aidan Monks and Annabel van Grenen, with production and executive direction by Sofie Van Natta, assistant production by Maisie Michaelson-Friend, and marketing/creative direction by Hanna Sabu and Elena Koestal Santamaria. Technical direction from Caitlin Conway keeps the pace crisp, while artistic directors Calla Mitchell and Callum Warden Browne give the production its distinctive shape. Head of scriptwriting and development Loulou Sloss and wellbeing officer Anna Tillotson round out a team whose work clearly shows in the finished product.
In short, Playing Love is an hour of clever, wordy, and wonderfully silly theatre, executed with style and sincerity. If this is what Monks and his team are doing now, I can’t wait to see what they bring to the stage next.
Playing Love. An Episcopal Sex Comedy ran from 30 July until 10 August at Bedlam Theatre.
More information on the Fringe website here.
Image courtesy of People You Know Productions, provided to The Student as press material.