Tinder. It’s all over the Edinburgh Fringe this year and for good reason. It seems to be a massive talking point for a broad spectrum of people. Tinder Tales, takes the real life stories from people using the app, and flips between the good, the bad and the ugly in a short 40 minutes.
With one interviewee chair placed centre stage, and the cast sat behind it, the play mainly focuses on the stories of the individual but allows a few moments for the whole cast to get involved. Most stories were fun and comical, which allowed the most sombre moments to land quite beautifully. I questioned, however, the need to gender swap for two of the scenes. Whilst all actors in these scenes played it wonderfully, I felt if they’d kept the scenes as written, it would have landed even more of a message.
The funniest scene without doubt, involves a girl on holiday having sex with the pool cleaner Diego. Why not have a woman play that role? There were some incredibly talented female comic actors on that stage who would have had the audience in stiches. The final scene portrayed a gay guy who falls into the trap of catfishing and has a hideous experience with one of his matches. The story is heart-breaking, and whilst it was performed, again, extremely well, I couldn’t help but think the two men on stage who had been making us laugh previously, could both have done the scene just as well. It felt an unnecessary use of gender swap, and focused my attention more on the idea than the storytelling.
With all that being said, I enjoyed Tinder Tales. You can tell the cast get on. There was a lot of love in that room, and they all kept each other going. There were some stand out performances from some very talented actors, and I look forward to seeing them in the future.
Review by Georgia Rix
Rating: ★★★
