A bizarre love quad that does not end how you think it will. Aiden Monks’ first foray into writing has produced an entertaining but imperfect front room farce.
Four theologians waiting to be ordained can’t keep their clothes on. All are in love with each other, and none can really keep up the act. The play is a bizarre, and slightly brilliant hodgepodge of the minor characters in a Shakespeare comedy, a Stoppard play and a Ray Cooney farce.
The play has moments of brilliance, and when it embraces the farce, it is a very entertaining and comedically sharp night. That being said, it is at times incongruous with itself. Monks is admirably attempting to write a play that takes the tone and predicament of farce and gives it the weight of a drama. It is very good at both of these individually, even if the jokes do need speeding up and for it to be more farcical, but when it switches between these two, it can be jarring.
It’s an enjoyable evening that could do with a cut and a refocus. There is something curious about its existence; it is at odds with a lot of work you will see at the Fringe, and I like that about it.
Review by Tom Carter
Proposal Day – four theologians at a sleepy seminary are soon to be ordained. In an apartment living room only yards away from the campus, these students on the brink of maturity find themselves caught in a sexual square-dance where feelings run riot, intelligence is victim to desire and games of wit, chance and smarts can bring time to a deafening standstill. Playing Love is a comedy of manners – about faith, devotion, sex and luck – taking on the Fringe after a sold-out run in St Andrews. What d’you say? Heads or tails?
PLAYING LOVE: AN EPISCOPAL SEX COMEDY
Bedlam Theatre at the Edinburgh Fringe
30 July to 10 August 2025
