Strategic Love Play Reviews

Washington Post- Recommended

"...Battye's script indicates her characters are "about thirty." The casting of Danny Gavigan and Bligh Voth - both tall, attractive people with good hair who scan as a bit older than that - is almost a corrective, in that this Man and Woman seem too ground down and scarred over to be that young. Both performers are dimensional and compelling, clearly relishing the opportunity to play the complete arc of a relationship in a show that runs a svelte 75 minutes."

MetroWeekly- Recommended

"...A lighthearted yet occasionally caustic look at "the perils and ridiculousness of dating in the age of swiping," as director Matthew Gardiner put it on press night, the play takes place entirely inside the bar where the Man (Danny Gavigan) and the Woman (Bligh Voth) meet for their date."

Washington City Paper- Recommended

"...When is it time to give up on capital-L love? To forgo the dream of roses, moonlit walks on the beach, and the idea of someone who sees right to the heart of you, and to simply shack up with someone who'll scratch your back every now and then? At a certain point, don't you have to ask how much first-date chitchat you have left in you? These are the cynical questions that Signature Theatre's Strategic Love Play poses. The dark anti-rom-com, penned by Succession writer Miriam Battye and directed by Matthew Gardiner, is less an adherent of love-at-first-sight and more, say, shrug-and-just-settle."

Stage and Cinema- Somewhat Recommended

"...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.""

MD Theatre Guide- Highly Recommended

"...If we all hate online dating so much, why do we consistently force ourselves through the humiliation ritual? Deep down, when all is said and done, we just want to be remembered as a person who was loved, not a person who was forgotten. Miriam Battye's "Strategic Love Play" at Signature Theatre lays bare these fears that propel participation in the monotony of another table, with another drink, and another stranger. With sometimes eerily realistic, yet tremendously over the top portrayals of the insecurities and expectations that make modern dating torment for (most of) its victims, "Strategic Love Play" is an apt expose."

BroadwayWorld- Not Recommended

"...All of this said, there's an intriguing idea at the center of this play: the idea of choosing to be with someone, as they are, rather than continuing the exhausting and demoralizing process of going through the motions of dating over and over, constantly confronted with the ideas of failure or that the next person will be the right choice, the right fit. As previously noted, the Woman's proposal to just choose each other and build a life isn't totally radical - after all, arranged marriages, marriages of convenience, and nonromantic partnerships have all existed across human cultures and history - but feels radical in a day and age when the apps promise our perfect match."

DC Theater Arts- Recommended

"...If you are still under the illusion that online dating in 2025 is anything other than a hellscape of half-hearted swipes, scripted introductions, and painfully awkward first dates, Miriam Battye - the playwright behind Strategic Love Play, playing through November 9 in an area premiere at Arlington's Signature Theatre - is here to absolve you of that notion once and for all."