Date, Desire, Divorce
★★☆☆☆ Thin
theSpace on the Mile (Venue 39): Mon 18 – Sat 23 Aug 2025
Review by Salvador Kent
In Date, Desire, Divorce, Malcolm Windsor writes four new short plays about dates, break ups and reconciliations amongst older couples. Unfortunately, the results, at theSpace on the Mile for the Fringe’s final week, leave much to be desired.
The four short plays are framed by Windsor himself playing a waiter. He works in a cafe. Sometimes the cafe turns into a restaurant — the stage picture feels muddled and confusing. The waiter functions to smooth the transition between each of the scenes; but the monologues he speaks feel directionless and mumbled. Often, they make the quick changes feel laborious and too long.
Damian Corcoran and Diana Stewart. Pics: The Swells
Damian Corcoran and Diana Stewart play all four couples. Their range is limited, but to be fair so too is their material. They rarely get up from chairs, or speak the wooden dialogue with conviction. They broadly keep the same inflections, with little attention paid to changes in physicality or character.
The plays are entirely situational and too brief to develop into anything interesting. Generally the men Windsor sketches come across as bumbling and stupid. The women come across as conniving, or seductresses, or pedantic. This view of gender roles feels reductive and does not make for interesting drama.
checklist
The scene which keeps the most interest charts a first date. The woman, Carol – has a checklist to see if her prospective partner, Steve, is a good fit. Whilst it didn’t quite function as it was, this scene could have more legs if expanded. The situation is amusing and anarchically mixes the old fashioned with this strange new world. The other situations lack the same potential, but this scene could be expanded into an interesting stand-alone play.
The scenes do flow – but only because they are thin. To be fair, observations such as a husband being annoyed about how a dishwasher is stacked draw a few titters, but the general mood seems appreciative but sombre.
This production from The Swells may appeal to a certain sort of married couple who would like a light entertainment. But in its current form it does not convince.
Running time: 45 minutes (no interval).
theSpace on the Mile (Space 1), 80 High Street EH1 1TH (Venue 3).
Monday 18 – Saturday 23 August 2025.
Daily: 6.40pm.
Tickets and details: Book here on EdFringe.com.
Facebook: @Date, Desire, Divorce
ENDS
