First things first: actress Isabella Murray is both brave and beautiful in this show that puts all of her messy feelings around sex, love, and romance on stage. Cheltenham and I settle into an empty theatre and I feel for the artists putting themselves out there (there are 9 in the audience eventually). Cheltenham is a self-confessed hopeless romantic and I’m her cynical sidekick always looking for some art form, or person, to change my mind. And at first Murray reminds me that actually, my cynicism serves me well when it comes to dating. It can be such a damn trash fire.

We find a lovely young lady, Bella, on a blind date. Soft lighting, tick. Splashes of romantic red, tick. Wine, tick. Is it a real date or a pretend date that takes place solely in her head – that, dear reader/viewer, is up to you. Bella’s date isn’t on stage, but is rather a soulless voice – er, many voices and accents – with a tinge of cyborg.

Personally, I think one voice and one accent would’ve been more effective and less disorienting, but I see what she and director/co-writer Revena Correll Trnka are trying to do here. Bella is trying very hard to connect with her date. She asks all the ‘right’ questions like, “What’s your deal breaker?” Cheltenham makes a point to use that on her next date, and I make a point to never, EVER date an Aries again.

It’s exhausting to watch her go through the dating motions: being the Geisha and pouring the wine, feigning interest in her date’s banal life and questionable music choices, and trying so damn hard to connect with someone she’s not even sure she finds attractive or hot.  

The awkward chit chat is painful and just when I think I’ll never date again, Bella breaks through the 4th wall and starts chatting with the audience à la Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and The City. Here we see Murray at her best, spinning out from the anxiety of dating and lightening the tone with her excellent comedic cuteness.

Like many of us, she wants to be the ‘cool girl’ on the date and she takes us through her internal thought processes around romantic comedies (and how they destroy us because that kind of love is so fictional), how she feels about her friends dating, what it feels like to always be the third wheel, and how anyone dating at her age just seems rather ridiculous (she’s a positively geriatric 23!).

Bella admits that she’s never been in love before but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t want to be loved. Like her, I too try to connect with the people I date through asking them all the questions, trying to find that ultimate question that will prove we’re destined to be together.

I’m reminded of the New York Times essay by Mandy Len Catron, that went viral a few years back, ‘To Fall In Love With Anyone, Do This’, which leads to Daniel Jones’ ‘The 36 Questions That Lead to Love’ (with a 5 minute staring contest at the end too). I’ve tried it and it works if you force it (but not for long). Why do we try to force love at all? Um because the patriarchy and outdated societal pressures tell single women they’re weird and incomplete. Bella, the only person who you should run through an airport for is yourself. You’re more than enough, and you are completely and utterly loveable. 

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