Blind Date – Review by Frances Winston

International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival

Outhouse, 105 Capel Street, Dublin 1

Runs until May 16th at 7.45pm nightly. Matinee Saturday 13th at 3.45pm – €15/13

The words Blind Date strike fear into most singletons and this production will do nothing to assuage that as two couples give their very differing accounts of an awkward evening out after being set up with a complete stranger. One straight couple and one gay couple tell us about their experiences but each person has a radically different recollection of events.

Told in a monologue format to a mainly bare stage the four actors here all do a really good job in their roles and handle the often gritty material well. Despite this though it always feels somewhat lacking. Two stories doesn’t feel like enough to give you a balanced overview of the blind dating scene and the end result is too similar in both cases to provide contrast. Some of the monologues are quite long and actually disengage your attention at times and on a minor note there is nothing linking the stories which makes the production as a whole feel a bit disjointed.

This is a good idea but it needs some development. Although it was strong in places it ultimately left me dissatisfied and I found I was analysing it for the wrong reasons. Worth checking out for the performances but not as strong as it should have been.