dateless.com

“You know you’re single if…”

In its best moments, “dateless.com” is funny, clever, creepy, poignant; sometimes all at once. With four likeable performers bringing to life a variety of different characters, singlehood is given a depiction/dissection that encompasses both silly comedy and painful truth. Even if the show pushes its luck by running over 2 hours, the gems along the way make the experience a good one.

Matt Byrne, the performer, gives himself a generally great showcase here, but Matt Byrne the writer sometimes struggles to provide the level of content andhumourneeded to fill the show’s running time. Byrne and his fellow cast members (Kim York, Marc Clement, Sophie Hamilton) work hard to win their audience over, with mostly successful results.

York delivers an especially meaty monologue that brings freshness to a time-worn moral lesson; it manages to be deep but not too heavy. Likewise, with a character who laments “What Happened to My Friends?” Hamilton draws, with beautifully subtle shades, a picture of the very real quicksand/labyrinth that a single person can find themselves in. Clement, by comparison, seems to have been given a relatively narrow range of characterisations, but the second act allows him to a greater variety to work with. He also delivers one of the more unique duets you will ever see!

On the whole, the blend of sing-alongs, sketches, speeches and pastiches succeeds in generating the ideal combination of laughter and recognition. The level of caricature and cliché is generally well-judged; the depiction of ‘country bumpkins’ is a guilty-pleasure delight, while the ‘drunken yobbos’ are just as good.

Occasionally a particular segment tests your patience, but the format that Byrne has chosen for dateless.com means that there’s always something different waiting not too far around the corner; this shrewdly maintains interest for the most part.

Utilising an ‘audience contribution time’ can be a dangerous risk, but that section of the performance witnessed was a riotous highlight! The cast certainly demonstrate here their skill with improvisation.

dateless.comis an example of energy and enthusiasm trumping the uneven material (and indulgent length). The result is a show with warm, wise and witty highlights, enough to make it worth watching.

Anthony Vawser

Read more about dateless.com