Venue: Braw Venues, Grand Lodge, George Street
Date: Sunday 16th August
Reviewer: Eileen Inglis
Introductions: The Musical opens with two twenty-somethings lamenting the state of modern dating. Everyone is exhausted, nobody wants to put the work into creating something real, and is there really any point in trying to find someone?
Then Paige (Abbie Lois) meets Dylan (Ross Jamieson). They fancy each other immediately, they have fun together and things are looking promising, until politics comes up. Paige is firmly on the left and adamant she could never date a Tory. Dylan, it turns out, is one.
What follows is a very musical-theatre take on whether two people with completely opposing politics can make a relationship work. The four-strong Scottish cast are all excellent singers, and there’s plenty of music packed into the hour. It’s occasionally a little cheesy, and some of the political comedy feels heavy-handed. A song about language you’re no longer supposed to use feels a little uncomfortable in places, while some of Dylan’s more provocative political lines don’t always quite land.
The comedy works much better when it comes through the characters. Edan Glennie is particularly funny, switching between a string of roles, including Paige’s dad, her wonderfully camp colleague and their pansexual London neighbour, Milo. DanielleClaire O’Hare is similarly versatile as Paige’s best friend Mia, her granny and Milo’s equally posh “Goldsmiths” partner, Skylar.
For me, though, Introductions becomes much more interesting in its second half, when politics takes a back seat and real life gets in the way. Paige gets a promotion and the couple move to London, initially delighting in living together, waking up beside each other and having lots of sex. Then Paige loses her job and becomes depressed, Dylan starts drinking, and the shine gradually wears off.
It’s here that the relationship feels much more believable. A Mr & Mrs-style game with Milo and Skylar exposes just how differently Paige and Dylan see themselves: she thinks they agree on everything; he thinks they agree on nothing.
Eventually, they separate, but when they meet again back in Scotland, the things they remember aren’t their political differences. Paige remembers Dylan’s kindness, that she felt safe with him and that they could have fun together.
And perhaps that’s where Introductions has something more interesting to say. In a dating culture where we’re increasingly good at finding reasons not to match, compatibility isn’t necessarily about agreeing on everything. Beneath the cheesy songs and broad political stereotypes is a much more relatable question: have we become so focused on finding the perfect match that we’ve forgotten that creating something real with another person takes work?
